In-Q-Tel invests in StreamBase Systems
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The Central Intelligence Agency-funded venture capital firm sees intelligence value in StreamBase's complex event processing software.
In-Q-Tel, the private venture capital firm created and funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, has made a strategic investment in StreamBase Systems, a Lexington, Mass.-based provider of high-performance complex event processing (CEP) software.The two sides announced the investment today but did not release specific financial details. Troy Pearsall, executive vice president for technology at In-Q-Tel, said the firm usually invests between $500,000 and $3 million in a company. The undisclosed amount will give In-Q-Tel an equity stake in StreamBase, according to Bill Hobbib, vice president of marketing at StreamBase. Hobbib said financial talks between the two companies have been going on for about a year. According to Hobbib, CEP software can instantly analyze rapidly moving data without collecting it first. 'Traditional data base management and architectures can't actually keep pace with the volume and the speed of data that comes into modern intelligence systems,' he said. CEP doesn't store data for analysis, Hobbib added. 'It analyzes it right on the fly, as it is whizzing past.' As an example, he said if a bank suddenly receives a large amount of incoming traffic from abroad using many different IP addresses, that could mean hackers are trying to break into the network. The instant the CEP software detects that anomaly, 'it triggers an alert that will shut them out of the network,' Hobbib said. 'The data is actually being analyzed in real time, on the fly, when milliseconds or seconds matter.' Hobbib said the instantaneous response can also be integrated with stored data on hacker profiles to analyze the attack characteristics and make predictive decisions based on those patterns of behavior. CEP has applications for intelligence, intrusion detection and network monitoring, and in battlefield situations, he said, wherever those situations are key to national security.' Pearsall said In-Q-Tel determined that CEP was a critical new tool for intelligence gathering. 'We're looking to accelerate that capability in the marketplace,' he said. StreamBase will develop its own marketing strategy. 'We're just going to supportive of them as any investor would be,' he added. Hobbib said the CIA-funded firm has asked StreamBase to supply the federal government with certain intelligence capabilities. 'There is a work agreement in place where we are delivering specific new features needed for the government and the intelligence community,' he said. With In-Q-Tel's backing, StreamBase expects to gain a bigger foothold in agencies that deal with surveillance, RFID sensor networks and geospatial information, Hobbib said. In addition, he added, In-Q-Tel will cite StreamBase as the preferred vendor of these sorts of technology. Pearsall said In-Q-Tel may make a second investment in StreamBase if it is needed. 'The reality is we just completed this transaction, and we're just happy to be working with them, moving them forward to deliver their platform,' he said.