SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 7, 2024--
PuppyGraph, the first and only graph query engine, announced today its $5 million seed funding round led by defy.vc. The zero-ETL unlocks real-time graph analytics for enterprises. This power translates into significant industry benefits, from generating GraphRAG to enhance LLM accuracy and reduce hallucinations, to real-time fraud detection and robust cybersecurity analyses. It also revolutionizes logistics for retail and supply chains and transforms healthcare outcomes by efficiently revealing deep insights from extensive biological and patient data relationships.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241023866174/en/
Traditional SQL operations struggle with complex, interconnected data, often becoming cumbersome and verbose. Graph query languages excel at modeling intricate traversal queries across dense data networks but are typically tied to systems that couple the query and storage layers, complicating scalability, adoption, and maintenance.
Being the first graph query engine, PuppyGraph brings a new paradigm shift where now users can query a single copy of data in both SQL and graph at the same time. For individuals familiar with SQL and venturing into graph analytics for the first time, PuppyGraph simplifies the process of data preparation, aggregation, and management by utilizing the data lake and tools they are already comfortable with. This design allows users to bypass the complexities of graph query languages for regular tasks, reserving these languages solely for specific graph-related inquiries like graph traversals. By streamlining these processes, PuppyGraph not only significantly reduces the learning curve but also boosts operational efficiency. This allows enterprises to continue using their SQL data stores while benefiting from graph-specific capabilities like complex pattern matching and efficient pathfinding.
PuppyGraph integrates effortlessly with widely-used data lakes and warehouses, including Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Apache Hudi, DuckDB, Databricks, Snowflake, AWS Redshift, BigQuery, CelerData, Hive, SingleStore, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, among others.
While the native graph storage systems can take months to set up due to building complex data replication process, PuppyGraph goes from deployment to query in just 10 minutes, handles petabyte-scale data with ultra-low latency, executing 10-hop neighbor queries across half a billion edges in just 2.26 seconds.
Since its launch in March 2024, PuppyGraph has quickly gained traction and is now in production within industry leaders such as Coinbase, Clarivate, Dawn Capital and numerous enterprises. Prevalent AI, an ISTARI Collective member and a Cyber Security leader, is integrating its Security Data Fabric offering used by large enterprises with PuppyGraph. Significant product advancements have also been made, including adding support for major data sources like Unity Catalog, SingleStore, Vertica, and IBM watsonx.data.
PuppyGraph's growth is evidenced by a 70% month-over-month increase in downloads of its forever-free developer edition. In addition, PuppyGraph has formed strategic partnerships with Google Cloud (BigQuery & AlloyDB) and has become Databricks' first graph analytics partner for Unity Catalog further positioning PuppyGraph as the industry leading graph analytics innovator.
PuppyGraph was co-founded by Weimo Liu, a Computer Science Ph.D graduate from George Washington University, leveraging his experience from Google's F1 team and TigerGraph, alongside Danfeng Xu, a nine-year veteran of LinkedIn's infrastructure team, and Lei Huang, a three-time Google Code Jam world finalist. Zhenni Wu, an experienced go-to-market veteran from the graph database sector, also joined the founding team. To bolster their expertise, Gary Hagmueller, former CEO of Dgraph and Arcion (recently acquired by Databricks as its third largest acquisition to date), has come on board as an active advisor.
As lakehouse architecture matures, enabling enterprises to aggregate all their data in one place, the potential to extract meaningful insights from this unified data is just beginning. Graph technology stands as the cornerstone of AI-driven architectures, offering unparalleled prowess in discerning intricate relationships within data. Traditional RAG systems struggle with fragmented data, often missing critical relationships and yielding disconnected results. PuppyGraph's innovative GraphRAG framework addresses these challenges by integrating a 'Knowledge Graph' that understands and utilizes the structure and connections within data, significantly enhancing the contextual understanding and navigational capabilities of LLMs. PuppyGraph’s Agentic GraphRAG, a pioneering development in the industry, simplifies the creation of large-scale knowledge graphs with zero ETL, enabling rapid deployment to query in under 10 minutes and supports both Gremlin and Cypher query languages to tailor precision and optimize performance. With the ability to handle petabyte-scale data with ultra-low latency, PuppyGraph can pinpoint even the most hidden insights in vast datasets.
Eric Sun, Sr. Manager of Data Platform at Coinbase, highlighted the impact of PuppyGraph at the Data+AI Summit 2024: "PuppyGraph is a very interesting graph query engine. It doesn't require us to load or ETL any data into a specialized or proprietary database storage layer for graphs. We can simply query everything directly on our data lake—whether it’s Delta, Iceberg, or just plain Parquet files. PuppyGraph can integrate this data into a graph model and another distributed computation engine to render all the results. We use it in conjunction with Unity Catalog to unlock all our transactional and crypto data already on our Delta Lake. PuppyGraph then queries this data directly to perform all sorts of graph-based exploration and aggregation. This capability is so powerful, and our users really enjoy this level of flexibility."
"We are thrilled to partner with defy.vc on this journey to revolutionize graph analytics," said Weimo Liu, CEO of PuppyGraph. "This funding will accelerate our product development, expand our team, and increase our market presence, bringing our powerful graph query engine to more organizations worldwide."
Brian Rothenberg, Partner at defy.vc, commented, "PuppyGraph is changing the way companies approach graph analytics. We are excited to support this innovative team that is not only advancing graph technology but also making it universally accessible and easy to use. PuppyGraph’s approach will significantly accelerate the adoption of graph analytics across industries."
For more about how PuppyGraph is shaping the future of data analytics and to explore its unique capabilities, visit www.puppygraph.com.
About PuppyGraph
PuppyGraph is the first and only graph query engine in the market, empowering companies to transform existing relational data stores into a unified graph model in under 10 minutes, bypassing traditional graph databases' cost, latency, and maintenance hurdles. Capable of scaling with petabytes of data and executing complex 10-hop queries in seconds, PuppyGraph supports use cases from enhancing LLMs with knowledge graphs to fraud detection, cybersecurity and more. Trusted by industry leaders, including Coinbase, Clarivate, Alchemy Pay, and Protocol Labs. Learn more at www.puppygraph.com, and follow the company on LinkedIn, YouTube and X.
About defy.vc
Founded in 2016, defy.vc is a Silicon Valley based early stage venture capital firm. Defy was founded to invest in entrepreneurs and companies looking to solve complex problems. Defy's focus is to help early stage companies mature and scale into companies ready for growth capital. The firm's team has more than 50 years of venture experience, successful entrepreneurial and operating backgrounds, and actively helps founders grow companies from inception through exit. Connect with defy.vc at https://defy.vc/ and @defyvc.
PuppyGraph UI Dashboard (Graphic: Business Wire)
PuppyGraph Query UI (Graphic: Business Wire)
The search is on for one missing U.S. service member while another was rescued after two U.S. warplanes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the Iran war began nearly five weeks ago.
The incidents occurred just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”
One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.
Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.
The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the latest:
Meloni assured Qatar’s leader during a visit Saturday that Italy would contribute to restoring Qatari energy infrastructure damaged by Iranian bombing, noting its natural gas production is critical to global energy security, her office said in a note.
Meloni is the first EU, G20 and NATO leader to visit the Gulf region since the start of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. She began her two-day visit Friday in Saudi Arabia and is also scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates. The start of the visit was unannounced due to security concerns.
Meloni and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, also reaffirmed the necessity of opening the Strait of Hormuz, which has blocked for weeks by the conflict, stranding numerous oil tankers.
Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said she underscored to her Iranian counterpart Abbas Aragchi “the need to halt the strikes on neighboring countries and restore freedom of navigation in the Strait Hormuz.”
Meinl-Reisinger said in a social media post on Saturday that navigation through the Gulf was especially important “regarding the humanitarian aspect of glob food security with a focus on fertilizers and other essential goods.”
She added her country’s support for forging a new deal on Iran’s nuclear program and restoring the country’s full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The United Arab Emirates said Saturday its air defense systems engaged 23 ballistic missiles and 56 drones from Iran.
Azerbaijan's state news agency Azertac reported on Saturday that 10 with 200 tons of food, medicine and medical supplies were trucked over the country's border with Iran.
Azerbaijani officials accompanied the convoy to oversee the delivery of the assistance, the report said.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev posted on X that the “friendly and brotherly” people of both countries have supported each other for centuries and "we will continue to stand by each other in both good and difficult times.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post on Saturday that Iran has "never refused to go to Islamabad.”
He said what Iran cares about "are the terms of a conclusive and lasting END to the illegal war that is imposed on us.”
Pakistan said last week that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran. It is not clear when or if the talks will take place.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on social media on Saturday that radioactive fallout from continued attacks on the Bushehr nuclear power plant “will end life” in regional capitals, not Tehran.
He accused Western governments of remaining silent about the repeated attacks on the plant.
The fourth attack on the Bushehr complex occurred Saturday, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. No increase in radiation levels was reported, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Bushehr is located some 750 kilometers (465 miles) south of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
The facility uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.
The finance ministers of Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Italy say that a European Union-wide tax on energy companies’ profits would distribute the burden more fairly.
The call, made public Saturday, comes amid concerns that surging oil and gas prices driven by the Iran war will fuel inflation and strain households.
Europe is largely dependent on imported oil and gas, leaving it vulnerable to external shocks.
In 2022, turmoil in energy markets following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine pushed inflation into double digits in many European countries.
Omar al-Waeli, head of Iraq’s Border Ports Authority, said on Saturday that the strike on the Shalamcheh border crossing killed one person and wounded five others.
Authorities did not offer further details on the strike. But trade and passenger traffic is suspended at the crossing, which is crucial for Iranian imports and Iranian pilgrims headed to Iraq’s Shiite shrines.
The Iraqi government said it was directing traders and travelers to alternative crossings.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that it has been informed by Iran about the strike near the premises of the Bushehr nuclear facility that killed a security guard and impacted a building in the complex.
“No increase in radiation levels was reported” following the strike, the IAEA said in a social media post.
Bahrain’s Defense Ministry reported the tally in a social media post on Saturday.
This brings the total number of projectiles fired at the country since the start of the war to 188 missiles and 453 drones.
Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said in a social media post Saturday that an airstrike near its Bushehr nuclear facility killed a security guard and damaged a support building.
It is the fourth time the facility has been targeted during the war.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.
Its pressurized-water reactor can power hundreds of thousands of homes and other businesses and industries. But it contributes only 1% to 2% of Iran’s total power needs.
Iran has been trying to expand the facility to multiple reactors. In 2019, it began a project that ultimately plans to add two additional reactors to the site, each adding another 1,000 megawatts apiece.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has discussed with Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman defensive military assistance that Italy is providing against Iranian reprisals to U.S.-Israeli attacks.
A brief statement from Meloni's office Saturday did not specify what type of assistance Italy is providing.
It also said the two discussed diplomatic efforts to end the war, the importance of opening the Strait of Hormuz and “more broadly how to promote a regional framework that can break free from the current cycle of conflict.”
Meloni will continue her visit in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. and Israeli warplanes continued to pound Iran Saturday, hitting several targets including a petrochemical facility, Iranian media reported.
Iran's official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.
The newspaper said another air raid struck Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.
The semiofficial Fars news agency reported several explosions heard late Saturday morning in the facility.
Mehr, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the strikes hit four companies within the zone.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post late Friday, asking about how busy oil tanker and container ship traffic is through the strait.
The 20-mile (32-kilometer) strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.
Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.
Disrupting transit through the Bab el-Madeb would force shipping firms to route their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, further hitting prices.
Israel’s rescue services said Saturday the man sustained glass shrapnel wounds after an Iranian missile hit the central city of Bnei Brak.
It wasn't clear if the glass shrapnel was caused by a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said it was taking the man to the hospital.
The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.
The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”
This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.
Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.
It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.
It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”
Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.
Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.
It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.
Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.
The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.
Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
