Today marks an exciting milestone for Sift as we announce our $17.5M Series A funding round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures). This funding, which brings our total capital raised to $25M, is a testament to the growing need for unified observability in complex machine development. We're thrilled to have GV's support and expertise as we accelerate our mission to empower the pioneers building tomorrow's groundbreaking machines.
"At GV, we're always on the lookout for companies tackling critical challenges in industries undergoing rapid transformation. Sift is doing exactly that for the hardware innovation space,” said GV General Partner Crystal Huang, “Their unified observability platform is the missing piece that leading machine builders need to turn troves of sensor data into actionable insights and accelerate development. We're excited to partner with the Sift team as they set a new standard for how groundbreaking hardware is developed and operated."
The Hardware Innovation Imperative
We are living through an extraordinary moment in technological history. Across industries spanning aerospace, energy, transportation, and beyond, visionary teams are pushing the boundaries of what's possible with hardware innovation. From spacecraft and satellites to autonomous vehicles and advanced robotics, these ambitious projects have the potential to revolutionize our world.
However, as the complexity of these machines grows, so does the challenge of developing and operating them successfully. Small data anomalies can cascade into catastrophic failures, leading to crashes, malfunctions, and billions in financial losses. The 2019 Boeing Starliner mishap, where a software error sent the spacecraft into the wrong orbit, illustrates the staggering costs of preventable mistakes — a $600M reminder of how critical data observability is for mission success.
The Observability Gap
Despite the high stakes, hardware teams today lack the tools to effectively manage the floods of sensor data generated by their complex machines. Engineers are forced to stitch together ad hoc in-house solutions or juggle an array of limited point solutions across disparate teams. This fragmented approach leaves critical gaps in data visibility, hindering collaboration and slowing innovation.
Despite the high stakes, hardware teams today lack the tools to effectively manage the floods of sensor data generated by their complex machines.
It's clear that a new paradigm is needed — one that unifies data ingestion, storage, visualization, review, and reporting in a single platform purpose-built for hardware sensor data. This is the future we've been building towards at Sift.
The Sift Solution
Sift is the first unified observability platform for hardware sensor data. Our stack brings everything into one place, delivering powerful real-time insights that engineers need to accelerate development, conduct efficient reviews, and ensure the reliable operation of their machines.
Sift is already the backbone for mission-critical machines at pioneering companies like K2 Space, Astranis, True Anomaly, Astrolab, Mach Industries, Parallel Systems, and many more.
Sift is already the backbone for mission-critical machines at pioneering companies like K2 Space, Astranis, True Anomaly, Astrolab, Mach Industries, Parallel Systems, and many more. Jeff Dexter, Sr. Director of Software at Astranis Space, shared "with Sift's advanced observability stack, we're automating much of the manual data review process to increase reliability while accelerating development. Their platform will be a critical tool in our mission to deliver reliable, cost-effective internet to those who need it most.”
For Parallel Systems, choosing Sift was a crucial decision. Kevin Limburg, Manager of Validation and Fleet Software explained that "With so much riding on these machines, every engineer diverted to fixing our dated telemetry system feels like lost momentum. We needed a modern solution to help move us forward."
These customer stories underscore the transformative impact Sift has had on the work of hardware innovators across industries. By providing a unified observability platform that eliminates the need for piecemeal solutions, Sift is empowering engineers to focus on what matters most — building the groundbreaking machines that will shape our future.
Scaling Innovation with Series A
With our Series A funding, we're poised to accelerate our product vision and expand our ability to serve customers across the full hardware development lifecycle. Our roadmap includes:
- Continuing to scale our infrastructure to meet the growing demands of leading hardware innovators
- Building out our manufacturing automation suite to empower customers to leverage Sift from R&D through production and operation
- Enhancing every part of the Sift stack with AI/ML capabilities, from anomaly detection to data visualization and review
- Delivering more ways for customers to isolate and recover from issues faster and more automatically
We'll also be growing our world-class team across engineering, product, sales, and customer success to support our customers and advance our mission. If you're passionate about enabling the next generation of hardware breakthroughs, we'd love to hear from you.
Propelling the Future
At Sift, we envision a future where the barrier to world-changing hardware innovation isn't sensor data wrangling, but the limits of human ingenuity itself. By abstracting away the complexity of data management with a unified and intelligent observability stack, we aim to free hardware pioneers to focus on what they do best — pushing the boundaries of the possible.
At Sift, we envision a future where the barrier to world-changing hardware innovation isn't sensor data wrangling, but the limits of human ingenuity itself.
Today's funding announcement is an exciting step towards realizing that future, but it's still just the beginning. We're beyond grateful for the support of our investors, the trust of our customers, and the dedication of our team. Together, we'll continue building the most robust software for hardware companies — and enabling the next great leaps in machine innovation.
Onward,
The Sift Team
