MarkLogic Acquires Smartlogic

Founded in 2001, MarkLogic launched with the vision of creating a deeply searchable database. Two decades later, it offers a multimodel NoSQL database and a cloud data hub service, working to establish itself as a leading player in those crowded spaces. Now, MarkLogic has acquired metadata management provider Smartlogic, looking to bolster its enterprise data management with another veteran company’s tools added to its arsenal.

Smartlogic, like MarkLogic, has been around for what seems like an eternity in the data management space (15 years for Smartlogic, 20 for MarkLogic). Smartlogic offers metadata management and knowledge graph solutions, as well as a semantic AI platform – called Semaphore, after the flag signaling technique – that leverages machine learning and natural language processing on unstructured data to enrich models, identify documents, assess information in those documents, and more.

“This is an exciting next step for Smartlogic and I want to thank our entire team for their contributions in reaching this achievement,” said Jeremy Bentley, CEO and founder of Smartlogic, who will be joining the MarkLogic team. “As part of the MarkLogic family, we will be better positioned to scale our robust AI platform, invest in our market leading technology, and provide an even greater number of customers with a unified data solution that can help solve their most complex business data problems.”

While the companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, they did confirm that as part of the deal, some members of the Smartlogic senior management team will join the MarkLogic executive team. MarkLogic is part of the portfolio for San Francisco-based Vector Capital, which commented on the acquisition.

“Smartlogic unlocks the value in important data sets many enterprises rely on by leveraging sophisticated semantic AI to enable better decision making,” said Stephen Goodman, a principal at Vector Capital. “Smartlogic’s ability to deliver actionable intelligence is complementary with MarkLogic’s powerful offerings and we are excited to deliver a more complete and informed perspective to customers through this combination.”

Announcing the acquisition, MarkLogic pointed out that Smartlogic’s clients – spanning a wide range of industries, from energy and healthcare to media and manufacturing – will prove a boon to SmartLogic as enterprises increasingly rely on intensive data management.

“Enterprises are facing significantly more complex data challenges than ever before,” said Jeff Casale, CEO of MarkLogic. “By acquiring and integrating with Smartlogic, a best-in-class metadata and AI platform, we provide our customers with the tools to more easily unlock the enormous value embedded in human-generated content. We’re very excited to work with Jeremy and his talented team as we grow the business and deliver better outcomes for our customers.”