Tengu

Tengu, operating under the legal entity Qrama, was a Belgian technology company established in 2014 by co-founders Gregory Van Seghbroeck and Thomas Vanhove. The initial concept for the platform originated from Vanhove's experiences during his PhD at Ghent University, where he sought to automate the complex and time-consuming setup of big data experiments. Faced with a market that lacked a suitable solution, he developed the foundational version of what would become the Tengu platform. The company was officially incorporated on July 28, 2016, and was based in Ghent.

The firm positioned itself in the Big Data and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) markets, providing a DataOps Orchestration Platform. This platform served as a centralized, cloud-based workspace for data professionals, including data scientists, analysts, and business intelligence experts. It was designed to address the common challenge of data being siloed across different departments and systems within an organization. By connecting disparate data sources, the platform streamlined and standardized data through configurable pipelines and environments, effectively making data more accessible and useful for driving business decisions.

Tengu's core offering was its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution which enabled users to manage and monitor their data environment through an intuitive graph-based user interface. Key features included data collection and integration, pipeline orchestration, real-time analytics, and personalized data filtering. The platform integrated with numerous third-party services such as PostgreSQL, Apache Kafka, Google Cloud Platform, and HubSpot CRM. The business model focused on providing these technological solutions alongside consulting services, implementation support, and training to help companies develop their data strategy and become data-driven. After receiving initial seed funding in 2016 from investors like imec.istart and another round in 2019, the company ceased operations in May 2022.

Keywords: DataOps, data orchestration, data integration, platform-as-a-service, PaaS, big data analytics, data management, business intelligence, data pipeline, cloud data platform, data visualization, seed funding, Ghent University spinout, Qrama, Gregory Van Seghbroeck, Thomas Vanhove, data infrastructure, machine learning environments, data analytics tools, imec.istart, data consulting