The Monthly Rundown: Startups to Watch from Shamus the Sales Guy - June

Was it me or did June fly by? Hope everyone ended Q2 on a strong note. We’re 50 percent through (hopefully) the craziest year of our selling lives.

While June did see a slight decrease in deal count, June also saw the largest amount invested in companies globally this year: $24.4 billion. Although we can’t predict much these days, we can at least say we’re trending in the right direction.

Source: Crunchbase data

Lucky for you, June’s startup rundown picks are also here to offer you a glimpse at the light at the end of the tunnel, (and none of them are from the Bay Area 🙂 ).

There’s a common theme I noticed in June: Buyers need access to data quicker and faster than ever (three of the five companies are data warehouse, analytics and management).

1. SQream Technologies

HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel

Industry: Business Intelligence, Analytics, Database

Funding: Recently raised a $39.4 million Series B on June 24. Lead Investors: Mangrove Capital Partners, Schusterman Foundation.

Web traffic: 85 percent monthly visits growth

Why I’m watching SQream Technologies: SQream Technologies is a provider of a data analytics acceleration platform that enables enterprises to gain insights. Snowflake has paved the path for the “era of the data warehouse” (upcoming IPO to prove it), and the importance behind speed and agility. Users can use SQream DB to load, store and analyze data in a fraction of the time it takes in other databases.

2. Starburst

HQ: Boston, Massachusetts

Industry: Analytics, Big Data, Open Source

Funding: Recently raised a $41 million Series B on June 16. Lead Investor: Coatue Management.

Web traffic: 67 percent monthly visits growth

Why I’m watching Starburst: Starburst (not to be confused with the candy) is on a mission to modernize data access and analytics. As the only company providing enterprise support for the Presto project (Presto is a high performance, distributed SQL query engine for big data), Starburst offers an SQL-on-Anything analytics platform. Because customers need instant access to all of their data, on demand, with Starburst, they are fully supported with production-tested and enterprise-grade distribution of open source Presto.

3. Infinidat

HQ: Waltham, Massachusetts

Industry: Big Data, Cloud Infrastructure, Data Storage

Funding: Recently raised a Series D on June 11. Lead Investors: Goldman Sachs, TPG Growth.

Web traffic: 39 percent monthly visits growth

Why I’m watching Infinidat: More data usually means more vulnerabilities, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Infinidat is a data storage software developed to more efficiently store and protect numerous petabytes of data at a faster rate. Its storage solutions impact top- and bottom-line value for customers who depend on data at petabyte scale.

4. Thoughtexchange

HQ: Rossland, British Columbia, Canada

Industry: Communities, Crowdsourcing, Q&A

Funding: Recently raised a $10 million Series B on June 29. Lead Investor: Information Venture Partners.

Web traffic: 95 percent monthly visits growth

Why I’m watching Thoughtexchange: Remote teams are shifting processes to include written documents and no longer solely relying on historical knowledge amongst employees. Thoughtexchange is a Q&A platform that helps leaders crowdsource questions to get answers in real time, and a good one to keep an eye on in the knowledge management space.

5. Silverfin

HQ: Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Industry: Accounting, Financial Services

Funding: Recently raised a $30 million Series B on June 9. Lead Investor: Hg.

Web traffic: 40 percent monthly visits growth

Why I’m watching Silverfin: Silverfin is the cloud platform for automated financial reporting and value-added client advisory services. They also automate compliance reporting and allow team members to collaborate within the platform, making it easier than ever to create new revenue from advisory services.

What else would you like to see? Send me a note: shamus@crunchbase.com

– Shamus