Munich-based database engine CedarDB announced limited availability of CedarDB Cloud on Wednesday, speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt where it is competing in the Startup Battlefield competition.
Databases have traditionally been built for one of two jobs: analytical databases help businesses spot trends and answer questions, while operational databases store day-to-day transaction records such as orders and payments. CedarDB supports both, an approach its cofounder and CEO Moritz Sichert told TechCrunch has gained relevance with the rise of agentic AI.
CedarDB has been in development for the last decade. It is a Technical University of Munich spinout based on Umbra, a research project built from scratch to beat legacy database engines at processing speed by making the most of modern hardware. Five Umbra researchers are cofounders.
The company launched CedarDB Enterprise as an on-premise offering alongside its free CedarDB Community Edition in May of last year, at the same time as announcing a €5.3 million seed funding round (approximately $6 million). The cloud offering was delayed rather than abandoned, and followed beta testing with users who had signed up for its waitlist.
CedarDB is compatible with PostgreSQL, which Sichert said helps keep switching costs low because users do not need to rebuild their apps. He also said the compatibility follows the logic LLMs are most familiar with as a result of their training.
Sichert said the startup plans to serve its first cloud users with its current team of 14 people, and expects it will need a larger team once it gets more traction. "And this is where we would raise our next round," he said.