SurrealDB is a four-year-old UK startup building a unified multi-model distributed scale-out database, integrating relational, full-text, document, time-series, graph and vector database capabilities. It features a custom in-house storage engine that enables real-time access to enterprise multi-dimensional data for decision-making and delivers a context layer for AI agents.
Founded in 2022 by brothers CEO Tobie Morgan Hitchcock and COO Jaime Morgan Hitchcock, the firm has secured $44 million in total funding, including a $6 million 2022 seed round and a two-part Series A funding of $20 million in 2024 and $18 million in February 2025. Tobie holds a Master’s in Software Engineering from the University of Oxford, with a thesis on temporal versioning in distributed graph databases, boasting solid expertise in database architecture and coding.
When asked about the inspiration for building a multi-model database, Tobie noted that modern applications rely on a mix of time-series, document, graph and key-value databases. He aimed to develop a scalable alternative to Firebase, capable of handling hundreds of terabytes to petabytes of data with full transactional support, paired with the temporal graph versioning technology from his Oxford dissertation.
SurrealDB’s core innovation lies in its proprietary distributed storage engine, built on TAPIR (Transactional Application Processing with Inconsistent Replication) — making it the world’s first distributed database to adopt this framework, instead of the common Raft protocol. TAPIR is natively integrated into SurrealDB nodes, delivering stateful database functionality atop stateless object storage. Currently scalable to 15 nodes, the system supports petabyte-scale object storage and dynamically loads data on demand.
This custom engine enables a single database to process all mainstream database queries without separate data partitions. Unlike competitors including Redis, Snowflake, Databricks and SingleStore, which combine database models via isolated, independent systems, SurrealDB unifies all functions in one platform. For instance, Databricks’ Neon integration features a single-writer limitation: only one node supports writing despite hundreds of read replicas, restricting enterprise scalability. In contrast, SurrealDB supports 15 to 30 write nodes, enabling extensive scaling and traffic redirection.
Despite being a non-Silicon Valley startup (and unlisted in Forrester’s latest multi-modal database report), SurrealDB’s substantial funding is justified by its mature product ecosystem and steady revenue. It offers two commercial products: open-source SurrealDB SW on GitHub and managed cloud service SurrealDB Cloud.
Its graph-based context memory technology echoes HYCU’s corporate memory and AI resilience concepts. Developed in-house by a core team of just 3–4 staff, the technology has attracted high-profile clients including Apple, BYD, Samsung, Verizon, Tencent and PolyAI.
Verizon leveraged SurrealDB to build a generative AI assistant for 10,000 field technicians, unifying relational, document and graph data to deliver instant documentation, outage updates and troubleshooting workflows. The tool cut average response times by 40%, accelerated service restoration, halved training costs and improved team operational proficiency.
Tencent consolidated nine fragmented backend monitoring tools into a SurrealDB-powered graph-first platform. With 9 storage nodes and 6 compute nodes, the system manages 8 million data nodes and 50 million edges, sustaining over 10,000 queries per second (QPS) and streamlining fault investigation workflows.
Samsung Ads replaced three legacy data systems with SurrealDB’s real-time knowledge graphs, unifying content, user and device data for ad campaign management. The platform slashed query latency from hours to seconds, enabling real-time campaign adjustments, reduced operational costs by 30%, lifted audience targeting ROI by 25%, and saved millions in annual advertising expenditure.
This article will further elaborate on SurrealDB’s multi-model database operating mechanism in a follow-up piece. Readers can preview its functionality via the related YouTube video.
Beijing Qianxing Jietong Technology Co., Ltd.
Sandy Yang/Global Strategy Director
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