SkySQL, a company that once existed within the MySQL and MariaDB ecosystem, has secured its first outside funding of $6.6 million in seed capital to bring conversational AI to databases. The investment, led by renowned seed-stage investor Eniac Ventures, will enable SkySQL to develop AI-powered products that simplify database management and provide insights to users.

For those unfamiliar with SkySQL's history, the company was initially established as a commercial entity supporting MySQL, a popular relational database management system (RDBMS) created by Michael "Monty" Widenius, David Axmark, and Allan Larsson in the mid-1990s. After Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, which had bought MySQL, Widenius forked MySQL to create MariaDB, ensuring it remained an independent, community-driven effort. Widenius then established two organizations: SkySQL, a commercial entity selling services for MySQL, and Monty Program, which supported MariaDB.

In 2013, the two businesses merged, rebranding as MariaDB Corporation and raising $230 million in funding. However, MariaDB spun out SkySQL as an independent business last year, with the team that developed the product at MariaDB taking the reins. SkySQL retained its focus on providing a fully-managed cloud product that automates provisioning and scaling, with features addressing security, compliance, and disaster recovery. Since its spin-out, SkySQL has added Microsoft Azure support, making it a multi-cloud solution.

The latest funding round will enable SkySQL to integrate AI into its database management platform, tackling a significant problem in today's databases – their inability to optimize for AI. To address this, SkySQL is introducing two AI products: semantic agents that provide insights on operational data, and SkyCopilot, an AI assistant that helps database administrators optimize performance, troubleshoot, and manage routine tasks using natural language queries.

SkySQL's semantic agents allow customers to build and embed their own AI agents into their applications, enabling users to ask natural language questions of their data stored in SkySQL. This approach eliminates the need to move sensitive data around, addressing security and compliance concerns. The semi-autonomous agents also support human-in-the-loop input to refine output and improve over time.

SkyCopilot, on the other hand, is designed to assist database administrators in optimizing database performance, identifying slow-performing queries, and managing routine tasks using natural language queries. This could include requests like "please give me a report summarizing the health of my server" or "identify slow-performing database queries."

SkySQL's founding team, comprising CEO Nithin Rao, CTO Jags Ramnarayan, and CPO Saravana Krishnamurthy, is committed to unifying various AI components, such as vector databases and large language models (LLMs), into a single API. This will enable users to derive natural-language answers without having to move their data.

Rao, who co-founded vehicle connectivity platform Autonomic and AI analytics startup Definitive Intelligence, expressed his enthusiasm for SkySQL, stating that it represented a "next natural step" in delivering on the vision of being the operational data platform for modern applications, especially those leveraging generative AI.

With its latest funding round and AI-powered products, SkySQL is poised to revolutionize the database management landscape, providing users with a more intuitive and efficient way to interact with their data.

As the company looks to the future, it will be interesting to see how SkySQL's AI-infused database management platform is adopted by businesses and developers. With its strong founding team and innovative products, SkySQL is well-positioned to make a significant impact in the database management and AI spaces.