Supabase Inc., a startup that commercializes the open-source PostgreSQL database, has raised $150 million in funding.
Singapore’s GIC sovereign wealth fund led the deal. It was joined by Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG, IronArc and SquarePeg. Supabase announced the raise today alongside another business milestone: it has agreed to buy fellow database startup Turso for an undisclosed sum.
PostreSQL is one of the most popular relational databases on the market because it’s free and highly reliable. Supabase offers a paid version that includes additional capabilities. One feature makes it easier to manage user logins, while another generates backups. An implementation of the open-source Cron tool can automatically perform data management tasks at user-defined time intervals.
Supabase also offers features optimized for artificial intelligence workloads. It can store embeddings, the data structures in which neural networks models keep their knowledge. An MCP server enables external AI agents to read and edit records.
The acquisition that Supabase announced in conjunction with its funding round will extend its AI capabilities. Turso offers a database optimized for AI agents. It’s based on SQlite, an open-source relational store with a small hardware footprint. SQLite can run on low-power devices such as smartphones and wearables.
AI agents often spin up databases to store the information they collect or generate. A coding assistant, for example, might need to retain programming instructions provided by the user. The hardware efficiency that Turso inherits from SQLite makes it well-suited for such use cases. The database’s small footprint enables agents to spin up it nearly instantaneously, which reduces wait times for users.
Turso provides several features that aren’t available in SQLite out of the box. It supports embeddings and encrypts each database page, or unit of storage, in a slightly different way, which reduces the risk of hacking. The platform’s core feature set is available for free. Turso monetizes it with a paid cloud version that automates infrastructure management.
Supabase could use the company’s technology to enhance Supabase Compute, a new cloud service that debuted introduced today. It provides hosted sandboxes for long-running AI agents. Those agents may benefit from the ability to spin up lightweight Turso instances for simple tasks that don’t require a full-fledged relational database.
“Agents are spinning up millions of databases to power the prototypes, explorations, dashboards, and apps they’re building,” Supabase co-founder and Chief Executive Paul Copplestone wrote in a blog post. “This new pattern, at this massive scale, requires an evolution in database infrastructure.”
Supabase will use the proceeds from its funding round to provide liquidity for employees and build new AI agent features.
Image: Supabase
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