Starburst Startup Diligence Report
Proceed only to confirmatory diligence. Public evidence supports a credible enterprise data/lakehouse platform built on Trino with named enterprise customers and cloud-channel reach; valuation and risk acceptance require audited financials, ARR/customer schedules, technical benchmarks, trust/security documents, cap table and counsel review.
Starburst Startup Diligence Report
Eligible for public-source diligence: Starburst appears to remain an operating private unicorn with strong public financing, product, customer, partner and technical-lineage signals, but the investability question turns on private validation of ARR quality, customer concentration, current valuation, cap-table economics, security posture and legal/IP matters.
The $3.35B valuation is a 2022 private financing/list value, not a current audited fair-value mark.
Diligence request: Request current 409A, secondary transactions, board valuation materials and investor marks.
Public sources disclose growth percentages, not audited revenue, ARR bridge, gross margin, COGS, burn or runway.
Diligence request: Obtain audited financials, ARR bridge, billing exports, product gross margin, cloud COGS and budget vs actuals.
Starburst competes with Databricks, Dremio, hyperscaler query services, cloud warehouses and open-source Trino alternatives.
Diligence request: Review win/loss, pricing, displacement data, retention by competitor and differentiation benchmarks.
Public customer logos and case studies do not prove current ARR, concentration, renewal status, churn or NRR.
Diligence request: Request top-customer ARR, contracts, cohorts, usage telemetry and independent references.
Trust Center and privacy policy are public, but SOC reports, exceptions, pentests, incident logs and DPAs were not reviewed.
Diligence request: Obtain trust-center documents, SOC bridge letters, pentest, subprocessors, DPIA and incident log.
Public rounds and Form D do not disclose preferences, debt, warrants, side letters, option pool or current ownership.
Diligence request: Review cap table, equity plans, debt instruments, investor rights and liquidation waterfall.
Trino creates credibility but also enables self-managed substitution and requires clear open-source/trademark/IP boundaries.
Diligence request: Review open-source licenses, contributor agreements, Trino/Starburst trademark rights and proprietary differentiation.
Federated/lakehouse performance depends on connectors, data locality, cloud costs, workload management and Varada integration results.
Diligence request: Run architecture review, customer benchmark validation, incident/support analysis and product telemetry review.
Public evidence verifies Starburst's unicorn financing history and $3.35B last-round/list valuation, but audited financials, ARR bridge, unit economics, cash runway and cap-table terms are private.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
No audited annual/quarterly financial statements, management accounts, product/channel/geography revenue, backlog or AR aging were public; only financing and 3X ARR/customer-growth claims are public.
| item | public evidence | verification status | diligence request |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARR/customer growth | Series D release says Starburst had 3X customer and ARR growth. | partially_verified | ARR bridge, ARR definition, billings/revenue reconciliation, cohort retention and customer count. |
| Audited revenue / GAAP financials | No public audited income statement, balance sheet or cash-flow statements found. | not_publicly_verifiable | Audited/reviewed financial statements, management accounts and revenue-recognition memo. |
| Gross margin / cloud COGS | Product pages imply cloud and self-managed deployment but do not disclose gross margin or COGS. | not_publicly_verifiable | Product-level gross margin, cloud-commit utilization, support cost and professional-services margin. |
| Cash runway / burn / debt | Financing amount is public; cash, burn, debt and runway are not. | not_publicly_verifiable | Cash, monthly burn, runway, debt/lines, covenant and latest board-approved budget. |
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
No public three-year projections, budget-vs-actuals, capex/working-capital assumptions or external financing plan were available.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Public evidence names major investors and confirms a 2022 Form D amount, but shares outstanding, option pool, preferences, debt, warrants and off-balance-sheet liabilities are not public.
| stakeholder or instrument | public position | diligence caveat | verification status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founders and management | Justin Borgman, Matt Fuller and Martin Traverso are public founders/leaders. | Founder ownership, vesting, retention and option holdings are private. | partially_verified |
| Venture investors | Index, Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce Ventures, Alkeon, Altimeter and B Capital are publicly named across rounds. | Exact ownership, preferences, side letters and board/control rights are private. | partially_verified |
| Preferred shares / SAFEs / notes | Form D confirms securities offering amount but not instrument terms. | Liquidation preferences, conversion, anti-dilution and debt are not public. | not_publicly_verifiable |
| Options and employee equity | No public option-pool schedule found. | Need option plan, grants, exercises, repurchases, 409A history and dilution schedule. | not_publicly_verifiable |
partially verified confidence: medium
Public financing history is relatively strong; tax positions, accounting policies and financing economics remain private.
| date | round | amount | lead or participants | valuation or post money | evidence | verification status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-11-20 | Series A | $22M | Index Ventures | not_publicly_verifiable | Starburst Series A release/snippets state $22M Series A led by Index Ventures. | partially_verified |
| 2020 (publication date not captured) | Series B | $42M | Coatue; existing investors | not_publicly_verifiable | Starburst blog states it raised $42M Series B and added Coatue. | verified |
| 2021-01-06 | Series C | $100M | Andreessen Horowitz; Salesforce Ventures; Coatue; Index Ventures | $1.2B valuation | Series C release announced $100M, $164M total financing and $1.2B valuation. | verified |
| 2022-02-09 / Form D 2022-03-30 | Series D / exempt offering | $250M announced; $249,999,942 Form D sold | Alkeon Capital; Altimeter; B Capital; a16z; Coatue; Index; Salesforce Ventures | $3.35B valuation | Series D release and SEC Form D align on approximate amount. | verified |
| 2026-05-30 accessed | CB Insights current unicorn-list value | not a financing event | Index Ventures; Coatue Management; Andreessen Horowitz | $3.35B list valuation | CB Insights row lists Starburst at $3.35B. | verified |
Funding announcements do not disclose security preferences, secondaries, debt or current valuation marks.
Null points are deliberate diligence-request markers.
Starburst publicly offers a Trino-based product portfolio spanning fully managed Galaxy, self-managed Enterprise and Icehouse/open-lakehouse positioning, with pricing, margins, roadmap maturity and independent performance validation largely private.
partially verified confidence: medium
Public product evidence verifies Galaxy, Enterprise, Icehouse, connector/client ecosystem and Trino technical foundation; market share, cost structure, product-level profitability and roadmap dates remain private.
| product | audience | key features | public evidence | verification status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starburst Galaxy | Cloud-first enterprise analytics and AI teams | Fully managed multi-cloud platform; cloud on AWS/GCP/Azure; start-free/contact motion. | Galaxy page says fully managed and multi-cloud. | verified |
| Starburst Enterprise | Self-managed, hybrid, regulated and on-prem enterprise deployments | Enterprise-grade Trino distribution; 50+ data sources; performance/security/governance. | Enterprise page describes supported Trino and 50+ sources. | verified |
| Starburst Icehouse | Open lakehouse adopters using Apache Iceberg and Trino | Iceberg + Trino open lakehouse architecture for AI/enterprise intelligence. | Icehouse page says Icehouse: Iceberg + Trino. | verified |
| AIDA / trusted agentic interface | Business users needing conversational analytics over governed data | Site navigation describes AIDA as conversational analytics on governed data. | Homepage/product navigation includes new AIDA feature. | partially_verified |
| offering | public pricing signal | commercial implication | verification status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starburst Galaxy | Start Free and Contact Us CTAs; no price card captured. | Likely mixed product-led and enterprise sales motion; price realization unknown. | partially_verified |
| Starburst Enterprise | Enterprise page/product navigation; no public list pricing. | Discounting, services attach and renewal economics require private data. | not_publicly_verifiable |
| Open-source Trino | Open-source project available independently of Starburst. | Sophisticated buyers may self-manage or use managed alternatives, pressuring price/value capture. | verified |
| Competitive cloud/lakehouse platforms | Competitors market lakehouse/query services; pricing varies by compute/consumption. | Need win/loss and pricing-discount analysis against hyperscalers/Databricks/Dremio/Snowflake. | partially_verified |
Public pricing was too thin for ACV or margin benchmarking.
Public customer proof includes credible enterprise logos and a detailed FINRA case study, but revenue concentration, contract status, churn, top suppliers and severed relationships are not publicly verifiable.
partially verified confidence: medium
Named public customers include FINRA, Comcast, DoorDash, Apache Corporation, Priceline, VMware, Conde Nast and Zalando; only FINRA had a detailed public scale case in this run.
| customer | source | use case or signal | public evidence | verification status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FINRA | Case study and public lists | AWS/S3 data lake analytics at 25PB and about 100B rows/day | Case study describes FINRA selecting Starburst Enterprise. | partially_verified |
| Comcast | Series C release / PR list / homepage | Named public customer; Comcast architect award mention | Series C and PR Newswire list Comcast. | partially_verified |
| DoorDash | PR Newswire / customer page feature | Named customer; public customer story/video exists | PR Newswire lists Doordash; customer page featured DoorDash logo/video. | partially_verified |
| Apache Corporation / Priceline / VMware | PR Newswire boilerplate | Named enterprise logos | PR Newswire lists these companies as trusted by Starburst. | partially_verified |
| Conde Nast / Zalando | Series C release | Named public customers in 2021 | Series C release lists them as customers. | partially_verified |
| Top-15 customers by ARR | Not public | Revenue concentration unknown | No customer ARR schedule found. | not_publicly_verifiable |
partially verified confidence: medium
Public partnerships include cloud marketplaces, Dell solution positioning, BI/Tableau integration and partner-award ecosystem mentions; revenue contribution and agreement terms are private.
| partner | nature | public evidence | diligence gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Marketplace | Cloud procurement/deployment channel | Docs say SEP is available directly through AWS Marketplace. | Marketplace bookings, fees and co-sell terms. |
| Microsoft Azure Marketplace | Preferred solution / marketplace channel | Docs say SEP is available as a Microsoft preferred solution through Azure Marketplace. | Azure-sourced ARR and support obligations. |
| Google Cloud Marketplace | Marketplace / GKE deployment channel | Docs say SEP is available through Google Cloud Platform Marketplace. | GCP revenue contribution and partner terms. |
| Dell | Joint data analytics/lakehouse solution | Dell Data Analytics Engine page says powered by Starburst. | Reseller/OEM agreement, attach rate, support split and margins. |
| Tableau / BI ecosystem | Integration | Docs say Tableau can connect via Starburst/ODBC/JDBC connectors. | Usage telemetry and support burden. |
| Accenture, Slalom, Capgemini, Deloitte, Red Hat, Tackle.io | Award/partner ecosystem mentions | Data Rebel/Partner Awards named partner categories. | Active pipeline and revenue share not public. |
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Revenue by customer and customer concentration are not publicly verifiable; public customer-proof chart intentionally uses proof counts, not revenue.
Use only as public-proof visualization, not revenue concentration.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
No public schedule of severed customer, partner or supplier relationships was found.
partially verified confidence: medium
Public architecture suggests dependencies on AWS/Azure/GCP, Trino, Apache Iceberg/open formats, connectors, BI tools and marketplace partners, but spend concentration and supplier agreements are private.
| supplier or dependency | role | public evidence | concentration risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | Cloud platform, marketplace, FINRA case-study deployment | Galaxy runs on AWS; FINRA case used AWS/S3; AWS Marketplace docs exist. | Cloud COGS, committed spend and service limits require review. |
| Azure / GCP | Cloud platforms and marketplaces | Galaxy/Enterprise pages and marketplace docs reference Azure and GCP. | Partner/channel terms and multi-cloud support costs unknown. |
| Trino open-source project | Core query engine lineage | Trino docs define distributed SQL engine; Starburst markets Trino foundation. | Open-source substitution, community governance and license/trademark boundaries. |
| Apache Iceberg / open table formats | Open lakehouse foundation | Icehouse page says Iceberg + Trino. | Market standard shifts or competitor control around open table formats. |
| BI/ETL/data-source ecosystem | Connectors, clients and integrations | Docs list connectors and clients including Tableau/ODBC/JDBC. | Connector maintenance and partner API changes can create support load. |
Starburst competes in a crowded data lakehouse/federated analytics market against Databricks, Dremio, Snowflake/cloud warehouses, AWS Athena/hyperscalers and open-source Trino.
partially verified confidence: medium
Public evidence supports broad competitive overlap; actual market share, win/loss and pricing pressure are not public.
| competitor | segment | product overlap | differentiator or pressure | source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Databricks | Lakehouse / AI data platform | Enterprise lakehouse analytics and governance budgets | Broad platform and AI ecosystem; may bundle compute/storage/governance. | Databricks lakehouse page |
| Dremio | SQL lakehouse / data lake analytics | Open lakehouse SQL analytics | Direct lakehouse positioning and performance claims. | Dremio homepage |
| AWS Athena | Hyperscaler serverless query | SQL query directly over S3/data lakes | Native cloud bundling and consumption pricing. | AWS Athena docs |
| Snowflake / BigQuery / Redshift | Cloud data warehouse/lakehouse | Analytics workloads, governance and data sharing | Bundled incumbents with procurement leverage. | Public category analysis from competitor pages/search |
| Open-source Trino self-managed | Open-source alternative | Core distributed SQL query engine | Zero license cost if buyer self-manages; Starburst must justify support/security/performance premium. | Trino docs/project |
| axis | starburst position | competitor pressure | diligence test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open/hybrid data access | Federated Trino-based analytics across hybrid sources. | Open-source Trino and Dremio overlap. | Win/loss by workload, connector and deployment type. |
| Managed cloud convenience | Galaxy fully managed on AWS/GCP/Azure. | Athena/BigQuery/Snowflake/Databricks native cloud platforms. | Conversion from trial to paid, cloud COGS and SLA history. |
| Performance/cost | Varada integration and Enterprise claims emphasize performance/cost. | Warehouses and hyperscalers optimize bundled performance. | Independent benchmarks and customer workload telemetry. |
| Governance/security | RBAC, access controls and trust center. | Incumbent data clouds have mature governance suites. | SOC exceptions, IAM architecture, data-lineage and policy enforcement. |
| Procurement/channel | Cloud marketplaces and Dell/BI partners. | Hyperscalers can bundle credits and marketplace commitments. | Partner-source bookings and renewal rates. |
Coordinates are analyst judgment based on public positioning, not market share data.
Public GTM appears enterprise/direct-sales led with free trials, cloud marketplaces, partners, events/content and open-source community credibility; pipeline, CAC, productivity and conversion metrics are private.
partially verified confidence: medium
Starburst markets open/hybrid lakehouse analytics through public product pages, customer proof, events, cloud marketplaces and partner ecosystem signals.
| channel | public evidence | likely role | gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct enterprise sales | Contact Us CTAs, Enterprise SKU, enterprise logos and sales roles. | Primary motion for large accounts. | Pipeline, quota, sales cycle, win rates and CAC. |
| Product-led/free trial | Start Free link on Galaxy/Icehouse pages. | Developer/evaluator entry point. | Trial signups, activation, conversion and expansion. |
| Cloud marketplaces | AWS, Azure and GCP marketplace documentation. | Procurement acceleration and co-sell. | Marketplace-sourced ARR and fees. |
| Partner/channel ecosystem | Dell solution and partner award categories. | Enterprise solution/channel leverage. | Partner-sourced pipeline, reseller margins and support obligations. |
| Open-source/content/events | Trino heritage, resources and AI & Datanova event CTAs. | Community credibility and developer awareness. | Attribution from open-source/community to bookings. |
| signal | public evidence | analyst read | verification status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer logos and case studies | Homepage/customer pages and PR list named multiple enterprises. | Credibility for enterprise category selling; still need current logo permission and ARR. | partially_verified |
| Datanova / Data Rebel awards | PR Newswire announcement named customer and partner award winners. | Community/partner marketing program around data-lake category. | verified |
| AI & Datanova 2026 event CTA | Site navigation promotes AI & Datanova 2026 in Miami. | Messaging pivot toward AI/enterprise intelligence. | verified |
| Technical resources | Site promotes Data Engineers Guide to Iceberg v3 and resources. | Content supports developer/architect lead generation. | verified |
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Major customer status and future growth are not public; public logos require current-contract and expansion validation.
partially verified confidence: medium
Public evidence indicates new-business avenues through cloud marketplaces, open-source/technical content, events, direct sales, free trials and partners.
All counts are null because funnel metrics are private.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Sales compensation, quotas, sales cycle, ramp, hiring plan and productivity model are not public; public open roles show active GTM hiring.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
No marketing budget, CAC, channel ROI or forecasted budget was public.
Starburst has credible public technical lineage through Trino and visible R&D themes around Icehouse, AIDA, connectors, security and Varada integration; cost, roadmap execution, support burden and IP chain are private.
partially verified confidence: medium
Public materials identify technical leadership and open roles tied to Trino engine, security and engineering; full R&D org, costs and productivity are private.
| name or role | public role | background or relevance | source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Traverso | Chief Technology Officer / co-founder | Direct Trino/Presto technical lineage and product credibility. | Starburst about page and Trino lineage sources |
| Matt Fuller | Co-founder | Founder/operator continuity; detailed current scope not public. | Starburst about page |
| Varada engineering/product leadership | Joined Starburst after acquisition | Inorganic performance/indexing capability and integration risk. | Varada acquisition release |
| Software Engineer - Trino Engine / Application Security Engineer | Open roles | Shows continuing investment in core engine and security. | Open roles page |
partially verified confidence: medium
Public pipeline signals include Icehouse, AIDA, connector/data products work and Varada-derived performance; specific dates, costs, risks and adoption are not public.
| project | public status | evidence | risk or gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Icehouse | Publicly marketed architecture | Icehouse: Iceberg + Trino for open lakehouse. | Adoption, GA maturity, migration economics and roadmap private. |
| AIDA / agentic interface | New feature in site navigation | Conversational analytics for business users on governed data. | AI governance, hallucination controls, usage and pricing private. |
| Connectors and data products | Docs/product pages describe connector matrix and data products/context layer. | 50+ data sources and connector docs; site mentions enterprise context layer/data products. | Connector maintenance and support load require review. |
| Varada indexing/performance integration | Acquisition announced; expected rollout to select customers | Release claims up to 7x performance and 40% compute-cost reduction. | Integration status, IP chain and realized customer impact private. |
Public evidence verifies core founder/technical leadership and current hiring signals, but full org chart, headcount, compensation, turnover, employee relations and equity plans are private.
partially verified confidence: medium
A partial public org chart can be inferred around founder/CEO and CTO/co-founder roles; full reporting lines and executive roster are not public.
Reporting lines beyond public roles are analyst placeholders and require company confirmation.
inconclusive confidence: low
Exact historical/projected headcount is not public; open roles show current hiring in engineering, GTM, product, support and services across multiple geographies.
| function | public signal | observed roles count | diligence request |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | Security, Trino engine, benchmark infrastructure, staff/software engineering roles in India/Poland. | 10 | Engineering headcount, attrition, roadmap capacity and location mix. |
| Sales / GTM | SDR, enterprise account executive, GTM university talent roles. | 5 | Sales productivity, quota, ramp, pipeline and churn by segment. |
| Product / marketing / support / services | Product management, web developer, technical support, professional services roles. | 7 | Support burden, services margins, product capacity and marketing ROI. |
| Total company headcount | Search snippets mention follower/employee estimates but direct profiles were inaccessible. | not_headcount | HRIS roster by function/location, offer plan, contractor list and attrition. |
Observed role counts are approximate from public page text and should not be treated as hiring plan completeness.
Approximate counts from text extraction; verify with live careers page before relying.
partially verified confidence: medium
Public biographies support founder/CEO and CTO credibility but do not cover full senior management or references.
| name | role | public biography or signal | diligence caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justin Borgman | Founder & CEO | Founded Starburst in 2017; prior VP/GM at Teradata via Hadapt acquisition. | Employment agreement, equity, succession and references private. |
| Martin Traverso | Chief Technology Officer / co-founder | Listed on company page; Trino/Presto lineage supports technical credibility. | Retention/equity and reporting lines private. |
| Matt Fuller | Co-founder | Listed as co-founder on company page. | Current operating scope and retention not public. |
| CFO / COO / CRO / CISO | Not fully verified from accessible public sources | No complete executive roster captured. | Request full org chart, board deck, succession and background checks. |
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Executive employment agreements, compensation, bonuses, benefits and severance are not public.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Option plans, equity grants, exercise prices, vesting schedules and refresh practices are not public.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Careers page describes remote/DEI commitments; no public employee-relations schedule or HR complaint history was available.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
No public turnover data was found; open roles and culture statements are insufficient to assess retention.
| item | public evidence | verification status | diligence request |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turnover and regretted attrition | No public turnover schedule found. | not_publicly_verifiable | Monthly headcount, attrition by function/location, regretted attrition and exit interview themes. |
| Employee-relations claims | Careers page states values/remote/DEI commitments; no public disputes reviewed except legal search separately. | inconclusive | HR complaints, investigations, severance, labor counsel letters and litigation docket review. |
| Compensation and retention | No employment agreements, bonus plans or retention packages public. | not_publicly_verifiable | Executive agreements, bonus plans, equity plans, retention grants and offer letters. |
Public legal/IP diligence found a Starburst trademark record, SEC Form D, privacy/trust materials and a CourtListener-indexed Starburst Data, Inc. v. Hewitt docket; most legal, contractual, insurance and regulatory matters require counsel/data-room review.
inconclusive confidence: medium
Accessible public searches did not identify a defendant-side lawsuit against Starburst, but CourtListener indexes one Starburst-named case and public searches are not legal clearance.
| case | court or index | filed date | status | source note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No defendant-side case against Starburst identified in accessible public searches | CourtListener exact query and web search | — | not_publicly_verifiable | CourtListener returned one case where Starburst is a named party/plaintiff in title; PACER and counsel confirmation required. |
| STARBURST DATA, INC. v. HEWITT | M.D.N.C. / CourtListener | 2025-03-18 | Company-initiated based on caption; docket documents not reviewed | Included here because it is a litigation exposure even if not against Starburst. |
Do not treat absence of public cases as legal clearance; run counsel/PACER searches.
partially verified confidence: medium
CourtListener indexes STARBURST DATA, INC. v. HEWITT in M.D.N.C.; complaint, claims, damages and status were not reviewed.
| defendant | court | docket | filed date | nature or cause | diligence request |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joshua Robert Hewitt | U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina (indexed by CourtListener) | 1:25-cv-00209 | 2025-03-18 | Contract: Other; Diversity-Conversion | Obtain complaint, answer, motions, orders, settlement posture, damages and counsel assessment. |
| Other initiated lawsuits | Not public in accessible results | — | — | not_publicly_verifiable | Ask counsel for complete litigation schedule and threatened claims. |
not publicly verifiable confidence: medium
As a software company, environmental/safety exposure appears limited publicly, but remote/global employment, office safety and data-center/cloud vendor responsibilities are private.
partially verified confidence: medium
Public IP evidence includes the STARBURST trademark, Trino open-source lineage and Varada acquisition claims; official patent inventory, licenses and IP assignments require counsel review.
| asset | jurisdiction or project | public status | source | risk or request |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STARBURST word mark | United States trademark | Serial 87706659; registration 5608477; continued use and incontestability accepted per mirror | TrademarkElite/USPTO mirror | Confirm official USPTO status and assignment chain. |
| Trino / PrestoSQL open-source lineage | Trino project | Trino is the new name for PrestoSQL; distributed SQL engine | Trino docs/blog | Review open-source licenses, trademark rights, contributor agreements and separation from Starburst proprietary IP. |
| Varada technology / patented indexing technology | Acquired technology | Starburst announced acquisition of Varada and proprietary/patented indexing technology | Varada acquisition release | Obtain purchase agreement, IP assignments, patent list and Israel employment/IP documentation. |
| Starburst patents beyond trademark | USPTO/Google Patents search | No definitive Starburst Data patent list verified in this run | Public search limitation | Run official patent counsel search and freedom-to-operate review. |
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Insurance schedules and claims history are not public; cyber/E&O/D&O coverage is a high-priority private request given data-platform/security exposure.
not publicly verifiable confidence: high
Material customer, cloud, marketplace, partner, employment, IP and acquisition contracts are not public.
| item | public evidence | verification status | diligence request |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer contracts / MSAs / DPAs | Named customers public, contract terms private. | not_publicly_verifiable | Top customer contracts, DPAs, SLAs, renewal terms, indemnities and termination rights. |
| Cloud/provider/marketplace agreements | AWS/Azure/GCP marketplace availability public, terms private. | not_publicly_verifiable | Marketplace agreements, cloud committed spend, credits, reseller terms and COGS schedules. |
| Cyber/E&O/D&O insurance | No insurance schedule public. | not_publicly_verifiable | Insurance binders, claims history, exclusions and coverage adequacy. |
| Employment/IP assignment contracts | Leadership and acquisition public; employment/IP terms private. | not_publicly_verifiable | Employee inventions agreements, Varada IP assignments, executive agreements and contractor agreements. |
inconclusive confidence: medium
Public regulatory/compliance surface includes SEC Form D, Trust Center and Privacy Policy; no enforcement history was verified publicly.
| agency or area | action or artifact | date or period | status | diligence caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | Form D exempt offering notice | 2022-03-30 | Filed | Does not disclose public-company status, cap table or investor terms. |
| Security/compliance | Trust Center with security certifications/compliance documents; SOC 2 Type 2 resource listed | 2025/2026 resources visible | Public portal / access-gated reports | Obtain complete reports, exceptions and remediation evidence. |
| Privacy | Privacy Policy | current public policy | Published | Validate GDPR/CCPA processes, DPAs, subprocessors and incidents. |
| Regulatory enforcement | No public enforcement action verified | — | not_publicly_verifiable | Counsel should run enforcement, sanctions and privacy-regulator searches. |
| ID | Claim | Status | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| EC-001 | CB Insights lists Starburst as a United States/Boston Enterprise Tech unicorn valued at $3.35B with date joined 1/6/2021. | verified high | SRC-001 |
| EC-002 | Starburst's public website is active and markets an enterprise intelligence/data platform. | verified high | SRC-002 |
| EC-003 | Starburst announced a $250M Series D at a $3.35B valuation and $414M total financing to date. | verified high | SRC-003 |
| EC-004 | Starburst announced a $100M Series C at a $1.2B valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. | verified high | SRC-004 |
| EC-005 | Starburst publicly announced a $42M Series B after its earlier Series A. | verified medium | SRC-005 |
| EC-006 | Starburst publicly announced a $22M Series A led by Index Ventures in November 2019. | partially verified medium | SRC-006 |
| EC-007 | SEC Form D records Starburst Data, Inc. sold approximately $249,999,942 in a 2022 exempt offering. | verified high | SRC-007 |
| EC-008 | Starburst markets itself as founded by Trino's creators and operating across 60+ countries. | partially verified medium | SRC-002SRC-008 |
| EC-009 | Starburst's public leadership page identifies Justin Borgman as Founder & CEO and Martin Traverso as CTO/co-founder. | verified high | SRC-008 |
| EC-010 | Starburst Galaxy is publicly positioned as a fully managed enterprise intelligence platform running in the cloud on AWS, GCP and Azure. | verified high | SRC-009 |
| EC-011 | Starburst Enterprise is publicly positioned as a self-managed enterprise-grade distribution of open-source Trino across hybrid and cloud deployments. | verified high | SRC-010 |
| EC-012 | Starburst Icehouse is publicly positioned as Iceberg + Trino for open lakehouse adoption. | verified medium | SRC-011 |
| EC-013 | Starburst documentation describes connectors and clients that allow SQL access to many data sources. | verified high | SRC-012SRC-013SRC-023 |
| EC-014 | Starburst documentation describes built-in role-based access control and security features. | verified medium | SRC-014 |
| EC-015 | Starburst has product-led and sales-led public CTAs but does not publish transparent enterprise pricing in accessible public materials. | partially verified medium | SRC-009SRC-015 |
| EC-016 | Public company and wire-service materials list enterprise customers including Comcast, DoorDash, FINRA, Priceline, VMware, Conde Nast and Zalando. | partially verified medium | SRC-002SRC-004SRC-016SRC-017 |
| EC-017 | A public FINRA case study says FINRA used Starburst Enterprise on AWS/S3 for a 25PB environment and about 100B new rows per day. | partially verified medium | SRC-018 |
| EC-018 | Starburst documents public AWS, Azure and Google Cloud marketplace procurement/deployment channels. | verified high | SRC-019SRC-020SRC-021 |
| EC-019 | Starburst publicly markets a Dell data analytics/lakehouse solution powered by Starburst. | partially verified medium | SRC-022 |
| EC-020 | Starburst integrates with Tableau and standard BI/SQL client workflows. | verified medium | SRC-023SRC-013 |
| EC-021 | Trino is an open-source distributed SQL query engine for querying large data sets across heterogeneous sources. | verified high | SRC-024 |
| EC-022 | The Trino project states PrestoSQL was rebranded as Trino. | verified high | SRC-025 |
| EC-023 | Amazon Athena directly overlaps with Starburst's SQL-on-data-lake value proposition. | verified high | SRC-028 |
| EC-024 | Databricks and Dremio publicly position lakehouse platforms that compete for similar analytics budgets. | verified medium | SRC-026SRC-027 |
| EC-025 | Starburst's open roles page showed public hiring across engineering, product, sales, support, marketing and services. | verified medium | SRC-029 |
| EC-026 | Starburst publicly promotes a remote-work culture and diversity/inclusion efforts. | verified medium | SRC-030 |
| EC-027 | Starburst maintains a public Trust Center with security certifications, compliance documents and key policies. | partially verified medium | SRC-033 |
| EC-028 | Starburst publishes a privacy policy covering personal data collection, use and safeguards. | verified medium | SRC-034 |
| EC-029 | CourtListener indexes one case, STARBURST DATA, INC. v. HEWITT, filed in M.D.N.C. on March 18, 2025. | partially verified medium | SRC-031 |
| EC-030 | TrademarkElite mirrors a USPTO record for the STARBURST mark owned by Starburst Data, Inc., serial 87706659, registration 5608477. | partially verified medium | SRC-032 |
| EC-031 | Starburst announced acquisition of Varada, including patented indexing technology and engineering/product leadership joining Starburst. | verified medium | SRC-035 |
| EC-032 | Accessible SEC submissions data for Starburst Data, Inc. showed a Form D but no public S-1 filing in this run. | partially verified medium | SRC-007SRC-038 |
| EC-033 | Audited financial statements, revenue, ARR bridge, gross margin, burn, cash, debt and forecasts were not publicly verifiable. | not publicly verifiable high | SRC-003SRC-004SRC-037 |
| EC-034 | Customer concentration, churn, NRR/GRR, renewal status and contract economics are not publicly verifiable. | not publicly verifiable high | SRC-016SRC-017SRC-018SRC-037 |
| EC-035 | Capital structure, ownership percentages, option pool, debt, preferences and off-balance-sheet liabilities are not publicly verifiable. | not publicly verifiable high | SRC-003SRC-004SRC-007SRC-037 |
| EC-036 | Product roadmap maturity, product-level gross margin, support load and benchmark claims are not publicly verifiable. | not publicly verifiable medium | SRC-009SRC-010SRC-011SRC-037 |
| EC-037 | Current public pipeline positioning includes Icehouse, data products/context layer and AIDA, while open roles include Trino engine and security work. | partially verified medium | SRC-002SRC-011SRC-029 |
| EC-038 | Exact headcount and turnover were not publicly verified, but public snippets and open roles show a sizable hiring surface. | inconclusive low | SRC-029SRC-036 |
| EC-039 | No public top-supplier purchase concentration or supplier contracts were found; key dependencies are inferred from product architecture and cloud marketplace materials. | not publicly verifiable medium | SRC-009SRC-010SRC-018SRC-019SRC-020SRC-021SRC-037 |
| EC-040 | Insurance coverage, material contracts, employment agreements, IP assignments and regulatory correspondence were not publicly verifiable. | not publicly verifiable high | SRC-031SRC-033SRC-034SRC-037 |
This report is a public-evidence diligence snapshot, not investment advice. Important financial, legal, technical, and contractual facts remain non-public and should be verified directly with management and primary documents before any investment decision.