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ClickHouse

Category: AI in Analytics & BI

A high-performance, column-oriented database management system designed for real-time analytical processing (OLAP) and AI-driven data workloads at petabyte scale. ClickHouse was founded in 2021. The company is led by Aaron Katz. Based in San Francisco, USA. Team size: 500+. Total funding raised: $1.05B total (equity) + $100M credit facility. Latest round: Series D ($400M, Jan 2026) at $15B valuation. Key investors include Dragoneer Investment Group, Benchmark, Index Ventures, Coatue, Altimeter Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, GIC, BOND, IVP, Battery Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates, WCM Investment Management, FirstMark, Nebius, Citi Ventures, Insight Partners, Peak XV Partners, D. E. Shaw Ventures.

Founded
2021
Headquarters
San Francisco, USA
Team size
500+
Total funding
$1.05B total (equity) + $100M credit facility

Value proposition

Provides 100x to 1000x faster query performance compared to traditional row-oriented databases while significantly reducing infrastructure costs through industry-leading data compression.

Products and solutions

ClickHouse Cloud (Fully managed, serverless offering), ClickHouse Open Source (Community-driven core engine), ClickHouse Private Cloud / ClickHouse Government (Bring-your-own-cloud/On-premise deployment with FIPS compliance), ClickHouse Vector Search (Integrated support for AI/ML embeddings), ClickHouse Keeper (Coordination service for distributed clusters), ClickStack (Managed observability stack for logs, metrics, traces, session replays), Postgres managed by ClickHouse (Unified transactional + analytical workloads), Langfuse Cloud (LLM observability and evaluations — acquired Jan 2026), Agentic Data Stack (Build AI-powered applications with ClickHouse), chDB (In-process SQL Engine with Pandas-compatible API)

Unique value

Utilizes a columnar storage architecture combined with vectorized query execution that allows it to process trillions of rows and petabytes of data in milliseconds.

Target customer

Data engineers, DevOps teams, and enterprises in data-intensive sectors requiring sub-second query latency on massive datasets.

Industries served

Cybersecurity & Threat Intelligence, Fintech & Algorithmic Trading, AdTech & Real-time Bidding, E-commerce & Personalization, Observability & IT Operations, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Technology advantage

Features a proprietary 'MergeTree' storage engine and SIMD-based vectorized processing; recently enhanced with vector search capabilities to bridge the gap between real-time analytics and Generative AI (RAG) workflows.

How they differentiate

Utilizes a columnar storage architecture combined with SIMD-based vectorized query execution, providing 100x to 1000x faster performance for real-time analytical queries while maintaining industry-leading data compression to reduce infrastructure costs.

Main competitors

Snowflake, StarTree (Apache Pinot), Imply (Apache Druid), SingleStore

Key partnerships

Major Cloud Providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure), Data Ecosystem Partners (Grafana, dbt Labs, Superset, Airbyte), Technology Integrators (Intel for hardware optimization, NVIDIA for AI acceleration), Langfuse (acquired Jan 2026 — open-source LLM observability platform), Ubicloud (partnership for managed Postgres service)

Notable customers

Uber, Cloudflare, eBay, Cisco, Microsoft, Lyft, Deutsche Bank, Meta, Sony, Tesla, Anthropic, Capital One, Cursor, Polymarket, Airwallex, Lovable, Decagon, Instacart, Memorial Sloan Kettering

Major milestones

Spun out from Yandex as an independent global entity in September 2021, Launched ClickHouse Cloud, a fully managed serverless offering, in October 2022, Integrated Vector Search capabilities to support Generative AI and RAG workflows in 2024, Raised $350M Series C led by Khosla Ventures in May 2025, Hosted inaugural user conference OpenHouse in May 2025; named to Forbes Cloud 100, Extended Series C financing with additional strategic investors in October 2025, Achieved a $15B valuation following a $400M Series D round in January 2026, Acquired Langfuse, the open-source LLM observability platform, in January 2026, Launched Postgres managed by ClickHouse for unified transactional & analytical workloads in January 2026

Growth metrics

Estimated $160M ARR (2025, per Sacra) with 250%+ YoY growth; over 3,000 customers on ClickHouse Cloud; valued at $15 billion as of January 2026.

Market positioning

Late-stage enterprise Decacorn and market leader in real-time OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) and AI-optimized databases.

Geographic focus

Global, with primary headquarters in North America (San Francisco) and significant engineering and customer presence across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Patents and IP

Primarily relies on open-source licensing (Apache 2.0) and proprietary cloud orchestration trade secrets; no specific public utility patents disclosed.

About Aaron Katz

Aaron Katz is the Co-Founder and CEO of ClickHouse. He previously served as the Chief Revenue Officer at Elastic, where he was instrumental in scaling the company from its early stages through a successful IPO. Before Elastic, he spent 12 years at Salesforce, rising to Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales and helping the company grow from a 200-employee startup to a global market leader.

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