San Francisco-based startup TextQL has successfully raised $4.1 million in a combined pre-seed and seed funding round led by Neo and DCM. This funding will propel TextQL’s mission to automate every step of the data analysis lifecycle, making data more accessible to non-technical users.

The funding round included participation from prominent venture capital firms, such as Unshackled Ventures, Worklife Ventures, PageOne Ventures, FirstHand Ventures, and Indicator Fund. Notable angel investors, including dbt CEO Tristan Handy, former Notion founder Chris Prucha, and executives from Tackle and Observe, also contributed to the funding.

TextQL’s flagship product is an AI data analyst named Ana, designed to connect seamlessly with business intelligence tools, semantic layers, and existing documentation. The startup addresses the challenge faced by non-technical workers in accessing crucial data by providing them with intuitive tools for data analysis.

Hurst Lin, General Partner at DCM, expressed excitement about TextQL’s impact on empowering non-technical workers. “We’re excited about the work that TextQL is doing to help non-technical workers across various industries and organizations access the critical data they need to make informed business decisions,” he stated.

Ethan Ding, CEO and co-founder of TextQL, highlighted the startup’s unique approach to replicating the experience of working with a human data analyst. The company’s platform, Ana, integrates seamlessly across the entire data stack, connecting to BI tools and guiding users to existing dashboards when questions have already been addressed. Ana also documents semantic layers and can generate semantic layer code when necessary, utilizing references from enterprise data catalogs and collaboration platforms like Alation, Confluence, and Google Drive.

Ding emphasized the importance of solving the longstanding challenge of self-service analytics, stating, “TextQL is built to mimic the hierarchy of responses a human analyst goes through—operating across your data stack without any migration.”

TextQL has already formed partnerships with organizations in media, bio and life sciences, manufacturing, and financial services, demonstrating its potential impact across diverse industries. The startup recently joined the NBA Launchpad program, accelerating its efforts to bring AI-native capabilities to the NBA’s data platform.

The newly acquired funds will primarily be used to expand TextQL’s team, with a focus on hiring software engineers and forward-deployed engineers. The goal is to enhance the startup’s capacity to onboard ten more companies in the next quarter. Ali Partovi, CEO of Neo, expressed confidence in TextQL’s vision, stating, “TextQL will unlock a massive surge in data usage where anybody in an org can access data and get insights just by asking questions instead of waiting for the engineers to construct queries.”

TextQL’s Ana platform boasts several features, including a dynamic metadata engine, business intelligence compatibility, an AI-boosted semantic layer, a Python-proficient language model, and Slack integration. The startup anticipates launching key technology partnerships in the coming months, further solidifying its position in the evolving landscape of AI-powered data analysis.

As TextQL continues to make strides in democratizing and automating data analysis, its innovative approach and strategic partnerships are expected to reshape the future of data accessibility for organizations worldwide.