Ex-Microsoft engineers raise $70M for AI-era data platform Edelbyte
What's the deal? Israeli data infrastructure company EdelbyteDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has emerged from stealth with $70 million, led by Sequoia and Quiet Capital, with participation from Greenoaks and Swish VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company builds a search and analytics platform designed to handle AI-driven data demand at lower cost than legacy systems.
Who's behind it? Edelbyte was founded by four former Microsoft engineers: chief executive officer Avner Aharoni, chief technology officer Evgeney Ryzhyk, and engineering leads Alexander Sloutsky and Yoni Leibowitz. They spent over a decade together building data systems behind dozens of Microsoft products.
What's the endgame? The platform lets organisations search and analyse data wherever it is stored. Edelbyte says customers cut platform costs and, in some cases, run ten times as many queries within the same budget. It is already running petabyte-scale deployments with Fortune 500 customers.
Why now? "The systems companies rely on to search and analyze their data were built for a world before AI," Aharoni said. He argues query volume and complexity will outgrow what legacy infrastructure can handle as AI becomes central to business operations.
What could go wrong? Edelbyte takes on entrenched platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks, the latter of which raised a reported $5 billion in August. Winning durable business from incumbents remains the key test for a company valued at $500 million.
The signal: The round is notable less for its size than its timing, as investors back a new entrant combining storage, search, and analytics for AI workloads. It also adds to a strong Israeli year: local startups raised $9.6 billion in the first eight months of 2026, according to Globes.
Read more: en.globes.co.il
Image credit: cbowns
