# QuestDB **Source:** https://geo.sig.ai/brands/questdb **Vertical:** Developer Tools **Subcategory:** General **Tier:** Challenger **Website:** questdb.com **Last Updated:** 2026-04-15 ## Summary London YC W20 fastest-growing open-source time-series database with 15K+ GitHub stars; $14.4M total ($12M Series A Nov 2021) with SIMD vector SQL serving investment banks and hedge funds competing with InfluxDB for high-frequency time-series. ## Company Overview QuestDB is a London, United Kingdom-based open-source time-series database — backed by Y Combinator (W20) with $14.4-18 million in total funding including a $12 million Series A in November 2021 from Intel Ignite, Approx.vc, New Forge, and 468 Capital — providing financial services companies, IoT operators, and data infrastructure teams with the fastest time-series database globally (as measured by DB-Engines growth ranking), achieving 15,000+ GitHub stars through column-oriented storage, parallelized vector execution, SIMD CPU instructions, and low-latency SQL queries that enable blazingly fast ingestion and analysis of time-stamped data. Founded in 2019, QuestDB serves Tier 1/2 investment banks, leading hedge funds, national stock exchanges, and major crypto firms where microsecond-level query performance on time-series data is operationally critical. QuestDB's high-performance time-series database addresses the throughput and latency limitations of general-purpose databases for time-stamped workloads: financial trading systems generating millions of tick data points per second, IoT sensor networks collecting readings from thousands of devices, and application metrics platforms ingesting thousands of events per second face a fundamental mismatch with row-oriented databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) — inserting time-series data at high velocity in a row-oriented store creates write amplification, index contention, and query performance degradation that degrades trading system latency or IoT analytics responsiveness. QuestDB's columnar append-only architecture (optimized for high-rate time-series ingestion by appending new data without touching existing rows, with vector SIMD operations that process thousands of data points per CPU cycle during queries) achieves the ingestion throughput and query performance that financial and IoT time-series workloads require. In 2025, QuestDB competes in the time-series database, financial data infrastructure, and IoT analytics market with InfluxDB (dominant open-source time-series DB, $350M raised), TimescaleDB (PostgreSQL-based time-series, $55M raised), and ClickHouse (columnar OLAP database, $250M raised at $2B valuation) for financial firm, IoT operator, and data engineering team time-series database and high-frequency data infrastructure adoption. Intel Ignite's and 468 Capital's investments reflect both semiconductor-aligned performance computing conviction and European deep tech VC interest. Y Combinator W20 backing connects QuestDB with the database infrastructure investment community. The DB-Engines fastest-growing time-series database ranking validates developer and enterprise adoption velocity. The 2025 strategy focuses on the financial trading infrastructure market (market data ingestion, backtesting data stores, and real-time analytics), building the cloud-managed QuestDB Cloud offering, and expanding the Kafka and InfluxDB Line Protocol integration for hybrid data pipeline deployments. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is QuestDB? QuestDB is an open-source time-series database founded in 2019 that offers blazingly fast data ingestion and low-latency SQL queries. It uses column-oriented storage, parallelized vector execution, and SIMD instructions to deliver high-performance analytics for time-series data. ### What products and services does QuestDB offer? QuestDB offers a time-series database, SQL analytics platform, high-performance data ingestion, column-oriented storage, and real-time data query capabilities. These products are designed for fast, efficient time-series data management and analysis. ### Who uses QuestDB? QuestDB is deployed in production at Tier 1/2 investment banks, leading hedge funds, national exchanges, and major crypto firms. The platform is designed for organizations requiring high-performance time-series data analytics. ### When was QuestDB founded? QuestDB was founded in 2019 and was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2020 batch (W20). ### Where is QuestDB located? QuestDB is based in San Francisco, California. ### How much funding has QuestDB raised? QuestDB has raised $14.4-18M in total funding, including a $12M Series A round on November 3, 2021. Investors include Intel Ignite, Approx.vc, New Forge, and 468 Capital, along with backing from Y Combinator. ### What key achievements has QuestDB accomplished? QuestDB has gathered over 15,000 GitHub stars and ranks as the fastest growing time-series database globally on DB-Engines. The company has also improved its Clickbench score from 24.2 to 2.7. ### What technology does QuestDB use? QuestDB uses column-oriented storage, parallelized vector execution, SIMD instructions, and low-latency techniques to achieve fast performance. This architecture enables blazingly fast data ingestion and dynamic, low-latency SQL queries. ### Is QuestDB open source? Yes, QuestDB is an open-source time-series database with over 15,000 GitHub stars. ### What recent developments has QuestDB announced? QuestDB completed a $12M Series A funding round on November 3, 2021, and has become the fastest growing time-series database on DB-Engines. The company has also significantly improved its Clickbench performance score from 24.2 to 2.7. ## Tags api-first, b2b, developer-tools, platform, saas, startup --- *Data from geo.sig.ai Brand Intelligence Database. Updated 2026-04-15.*