TerminusDB - Trinity College Dublin Spin-out

Spin-out company from Trinity College Dublin, TerminusDB is bringing the revision control revolution to data. The company, previously known as DataChemist, is behind the open source graph database, TerminusDB. TerminusDB and TerminusHub allows you to easily collaborate with versioned complex data. It transforms messy and inconsistent data sets of the real world into clean, structured and integrated data that you can easily share or integrate into a pipeline.

Headquartered in Dublin, TerminusDB spun out from Trinity College Dublin in 2017 and is funded by Atlantic Bridge and Enterprise Ireland and is focused on delivering for data people: DBAs, Data Scientists, DevOps and DataOps.

Co-founders Kevin Feeney and Gavin Mendel-Gleason, both fellows at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, are now CEO and CTO of the company respectively.

The company has its foundation in intellectual property that came about through research undertaken during a Horizon 2020 project called ALIGNED. Initial funding was through a capital seed round of $1.2 million led by Atlantic Bridge and including Enterprise Ireland. The company licensed software and know-how from Trinity College Dublin and the university also holds an equity stake in the company.

“We saw first-hand how the technology behind TerminusDB can bring clarity and insight to researchers handling large and complex data sets. Were confident that they will be able to translate this research into the commercial world, highlighting Irelands growing excellence in the tech space.”

Commented Leonard Hobbs, Director of Trinity Research and Innovation at Trinity College Dublin. The TTO office supported the formation of the company from raising finance, management of intellectual property, introducing the company to potential customers and participating in join events.

The company has also paid homage to the support it has received from the office. As Kevin Feeney puts it

“A smooth license negotiation process from term sheet agreement to final execution greatly assisted our initial fundraising seed round. The campus company approval process in trinity is well documented and as a result largely seamless. In particular, the fact that the role of Start-up Development Manger exists, shows how Trinity values outcomes that are mutually beneficial to both the University and the company.”

TerminusDB has won several accolades that include the Trinity Innovation Awards and it is now classified as an Enterprise Ireland HPSU. In November 2019, the company announced its expansion by opening a R&D hub in Utrecht in the Netherlands where it employs 2 people in addition to the 9 staff in its headquarters in Ireland.

Publish date: 2019 

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