rENIAC
5 employees on LinkedIn · 5 known investors
rENIAC builds a Data Engine that acts as a drop-in database accelerator using FPGA, CPU and tiered storage (DRAM+SSD) to lower latency and increase throughput for SQL, NoSQL and Graph databases. It serves organizations with real-time, data-centric applications such as recommendation engines, online AI/ML models, fraud prevention and payment processing.
Also known as Reniac · rENIAC, Inc. · Reniac, Inc.
Investors · 5
Also in the syndicate · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026rENIAC, Inc. is a privately held database software company based in San Jose, California. Its product, the rENIAC Data Engine (rDE), is composed of storage, network and compute engines and uses FPGA, CPU and tiered storage (DRAM plus SSD) to accelerate data workloads. The engine is positioned as a drop-in addition to existing database clusters that requires no changes to application software or data architecture, and supports SQL, NoSQL and graph databases.
The Data Engine can be deployed as a Cassandra I/O accelerator, a distributed persistent cache, or a distributed, scalable storage engine for graph and SQL databases. The company markets the product to operators of latency-sensitive, data-centric applications, citing outcomes such as 13x lower latency, a 10x throughput increase, 80% reduction in CPU usage, 75% lower maintenance and operating expense, and 80% total cost of ownership reduction. Earlier public descriptions of the company referenced a gateway product that allowed customers' existing servers to scale to billions of transactions at half the cost of alternative solutions, and a Line Rate Data Ingestion technology for analyzing and enriching large data volumes within an SLA.
Founding story
The company was founded in 2012 and takes its name from ENIAC, the electronic general-purpose computer designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania and introduced in 1946. Its founding team came out of Xilinx: CEO Prasanna Sundararajan had been at Xilinx since 1999, most recently as senior staff HPC systems architect, and CTO Chidamber Kulkarni was previously a senior staff design engineer there for nine years. Architect Pradeep Mishra also joined from Xilinx, where he spent roughly eight years as a software development manager.
Business model
rENIAC sells its Data Engine as a commercial product layered onto customers' existing open source database deployments, with pricing published on its website. The offering is positioned as an add-on to installed database clusters rather than a replacement platform, allowing customers to retain existing servers and software.
Traction
Public materials cite use by leading organizations with real-time data needs, including a digital advertising company that used the product to scale to billions of transactions on existing servers with added per-node operational visibility. A 2016 profile reported claims of more than 40 patents and over 60 man-years of product development.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
rENIAC operates in the database acceleration and storage infrastructure segment, targeting Apache Cassandra and other open source SQL, NoSQL and graph database deployments. Executives from Intel, DataStax and LinkedIn have publicly commented on the company's approach to FPGA-based data workload acceleration.
The company positions the Data Engine as a drop-in deployment that avoids rip-and-replace migrations, requiring no changes to software or data architecture while reducing server footprint. Intel's Programmable Solutions Group has stated that the software can deliver up to a 10x throughput increase versus alternative implementations without code changes, using Intel FPGA and advanced memory technologies.
Technology
The rENIAC Data Engine combines storage, network and compute engines and leverages FPGA hardware, CPUs and tiered storage using DRAM and SSD. It requires no code changes from the applications it accelerates and can operate as a Cassandra I/O accelerator, a distributed persistent cache, or a distributed and scalable storage engine for graph and SQL databases. The founders hold a patent on a heterogeneous memory system incorporating a network interface card, main memory, a first-level cache and a memory management unit.
Go-to-market
Organizations running latency-sensitive, real-time, data-centric applications, including recommendation engines, online AI and machine learning models, fraud prevention and payment processing. Referenced users include a digital advertising company handling billions of transactions and operators of Apache Cassandra clusters.
Geography
Headquartered in San Jose, California, United States.
History
Founded in 2012 in San Jose, California, rENIAC operated in stealth in its early years while building out its technology, and received seed funding from Alchemist Accelerator in 2013. A 2016 profile described the team as drawing on data, software and systems experience from LinkedIn, Riverbed, IBM and primarily Xilinx, and reported claims of more than 40 patents and over 60 man-years of product development. The two co-founders were assigned a patent, filed on 7 April 2015, covering a heterogeneous memory system comprising a network interface card, a main memory arrangement, a first-level cache and a memory management unit. The company subsequently brought the rENIAC Data Engine to market as a drop-in accelerator for open source databases.
Compiled by commissioned research from 5 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 2
launches, deals, and filingsA patent filed on 7 April 2015 and assigned to the two co-founders covers a heterogeneous memory system including a network interface card, a main memory arrangement, a first-level cache and a memory management unit.
rENIAC received a $28,000 seed funding round from Alchemist Accelerator; other investors listed include Menlo and Right Side Capital Management.
$28K source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 5
primary sources listed
- rENIACreniac.com · web
5 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does rENIAC do?
- rENIAC builds a drop-in Data Engine that uses FPGA, CPU and tiered storage to accelerate SQL, NoSQL and graph databases.
- Who are rENIAC's investors?
- rENIAC's investors include Bullpen Capital, First Star Ventures, Intel Capital, J-Ventures.