San Francisco and Cologne, Germany – March 2, 2022 – ArangoDB, the most scalable open source graph database, today announced it has appointed Shekhar Iyer as Chief Executive Officer; he will also join ArangoDB’s Board of Directors. Claudius Weinberger, ArangoDB co-founder, will assume the role of Chief Product Officer (CPO) going forward, and will continue to serve on the Board of Directors. Experienced global marketing executive James Smith has also joined ArangoDB as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Iyer is a global technology executive with a wealth of experience in enterprise software. He most recently served as the President of StreamSets, where he was responsible for worldwide customer operations, including sales, marketing, solution engineering, business development partnerships, field enablement, professional services, and customer success. Prior to StreamSets, Iyer has held numerous other executive positions at leading data companies, including Chief Revenue Officer at Couchbase, Global Vice President of Big Data and Analytics at SAP, and Senior Vice President and General Manager at Informatica, among others. At ArangoDB, he will leverage his international go-to-market experience to help catapult the company into its next phase of growth.
“I am pleased to welcome Shekhar to the ArangoDB executive team,” said Claudius Weinberger, ArangoDB co-founder and CPO. “His extensive operational background is exactly what we need at this phase in the company’s growth, and I’m confident in his ability to improve and accelerate the market traction we’ve built as the most scalable open source graph database. I look forward to returning to my product roots in my new role as CPO, where I will be able to focus my time and energy refining our product strategy and roadmap, as well as spend more time with our customers.”
“Having spent the past two plus decades of my career in the big data, database and analytics space, I am thrilled to join the ArangoDB team,” said Shekhar Iyer, ArangoDB CEO. “According to Gartner, ‘Graph forms the foundation of modern data and analytics with capabilities to enhance and improve user collaboration, machine learning models and explainable AI.’[1] ArangoDB is the only graph database that can truly scale to meet this promise.”
Iyer joins ArangoDB as it enters its next phase of growth. The company recently raised a $27.8 million Series B financing round to accelerate its continued development of advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, and its employee base has more than doubled over the course of the past year. In addition, incoming CMO James Smith brings more than three decades of marketing experience to ArangoDB, having held senior marketing roles at Punchh, GoodData, OneLogin, Sitecore, Avaya, Electronic Arts, and Intel.
“The addition of Shekhar and James to the ArangoDB executive team comes at a great time for the company,” said Curt Gunsenheimer, Managing Partner at Iris Capital and ArangoDB board member. “ArangoDB has built a great product, and with its latest round of financing and the addition of seasoned senior leadership, the company has an amazing foundation in place for further fast expansion. I look forward to Shekhar and James’ contributions in their new positions at the company.”
