ClickHouse, a Startup Focused on Real-time Databases, Bolsters Postgres Support through Acquisition of PeerDB

ClickHouse, the pioneering analytics database firm known for its real-time processing capabilities, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of PeerDB, a firm focusing on economic solutions for Postgres data replication and change data capture. This strategic move comes after ClickHouse’s spin-off from Yandex in 2021.

Since its inception and even during its earlier phase as an open-source initiative backed by Yandex, ClickHouse has established its credibility in providing real-time analytics solutions for major corporations. Its clientele boasts of industry giants such as Deutsche Bank, eBay, Fastly, GitLab, HubSpot, Microsoft, ServiceNow, and Spotify. Although ClickHouse had previously introduced a Postgres connector to facilitate data migration from the widely-used relational database to its analytical database, the acquisition of PeerDB enhances this capability significantly, offering up to tenfold speed enhancements alongside several unique features previously unavailable in ClickHouse.

“Our journey began with the ambition to create the leading data movement ETL tool, concentrating exclusively on Postgres. We aimed to provide the most efficient method for data replication from Postgres to data warehouses. […] About six months ago, we launched our ClickHouse connector, and its growth has been phenomenal, outpacing other connectors to data warehouses such as Snowflake and BigQuery,” explained PeerDB’s co-founder and CEO Sai Srirampur. Srirampur, before inaugurating PeerDB, contributed to the Azure PostgreSQL service following Microsoft’s acquisition of Citus Data, where he was previously employed.

Srirampur also shared that PeerDB was driven by a mission for “quality over quantity,” leading the team to dedicate itself to crafting a specialized ETL tool for Postgres. This focus included not only the initial transfer of potentially terabytes of data from a Postgres database to a warehouse like ClickHouse but, crucially, also implementing a robust change data capture system to keep the original database and the data warehouse in continuous alignment.

For the majority of PeerDB’s client base, Postgres serves as the primary data source for their data warehouses. This preference isn’t surprising, especially for PeerDB’s clientele, underscoring ClickHouse’s interest in acquiring a solution poised for growth in this area.

“A common scenario we often encounter is utilizing Postgres as the transactional backbone for client-centric applications, subsequently transferring that data into ClickHouse for analytical purposes. It’s a prevalent model, and numerous clients are utilizing it,” shared ClickHouse co-founder Yury Izrailevsky. “Despite Postgres’s complexity and the depth of knowledge it requires, particularly for Change Data Capture scenarios, it’s exceedingly potent.”

Moving forward, the PeerDB team is set to expand its change data capture capabilities to additional data sources. Existing commercial clients will have access to the PeerDB Cloud service until July 24, 2025.

PeerDB will maintain its open-source components under their current licenses without alterations. Moreover, ClickHouse commits to open-sourcing the enterprise-grade Helm charts for PeerDB’s enterprise version.

Whilst the financial details of the deal remain undisclosed, it’s notable that PeerDB recently secured $3.6 million in seed funding in late 2023, led by 8VC.

“We believe we’ve reached an equitable agreement that duly compensates and acknowledges PeerDB team’s efforts and is favorable to both the team and their investors,” Izrailevsky remarked. “Simultaneously, we view it as an excellent opportunity for us, given the potential.”