CtrlB Pivots to Data Observability, Secures $2.5M Seed Funding

CtrlB's Strategic Pivot to Data Observability

Data has become the new oil for the modern tech industry, fueling innovation for companies like Eternal, Swiggy, and Paytm. With Artificial Intelligence now central, securing quality data is an intense race. Enterprises collect vast user data for personalization and crucial business decisions, but poor data quality can lead to significant challenges, including data downtime and costly errors.

The High Cost of Bad Data

A five-year-old Gartner research study highlighted that poor data quality could cost an organization $12.9 million annually, a figure likely much higher today. Beyond monetary losses, data engineers and analysts lose productivity fixing these persistent issues. Recognizing this critical pain point, Adarsh Srivastava, founder of CtrlB, identified a gap where traditional data observability platforms were not cost-competitive for growing companies.

From Debugging to Data Filtering

Srivastava, a technology enthusiast with a background from IIT Kanpur, initially founded CtrlB in 2023 with co-founder Mayank Singh Chauhan. Their first product was a live debugging platform designed to help developers quickly find bugs in large datasets and code without impacting application performance. However, the platform struggled to monetize, as enterprises reportedly did not measure programmer productivity for downtime resolution.

Securing Growth Capital

Following the challenges with the initial product, Chauhan departed, but Srivastava was determined to keep CtrlB operational. He pivoted the company towards data observability and launched the Control Plane platform. Balasubramanian P joined as a co-founder, and the startup successfully raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Chiratae Ventures, with participation from Equirus, InnovateX Fund, Campus Fund, and Point One Capital. This funding follows an earlier $300,000 raise.

CtrlB's Data Observability Solution

Data observability is a process that monitors critical data, its sources, and its quality, acting as a health check for an organization's data assets. CtrlB's Control Plane integrates with an enterprise's data tools to monitor data streams, alerting teams to potential issues before downtime occurs. Srivastava claims CtrlB's proprietary indexing technology allows for faster issue pinpointing compared to competitors like Zoho's Site24x7 and SigNoz. Utilizing cloud storage also keeps operational costs low, enabling competitive pricing.

Pricing and Market Positioning

CtrlB's paid version starts at $0.2 per GB for unlimited data ingestion, positioning it as a more affordable option against competitors like Site24x7 and SigNoz, though SigNoz offers more pricing flexibility. The company is actively pursuing SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications and filing patents for its indexing technology to build market credibility.

Future Trajectory

Currently in the pre-revenue stage, CtrlB aims to achieve an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $100,000 (approximately INR 90 Lakh) by the end of FY26, targeting about 15 companies in the logistics, fintech, e-commerce, and SaaS sectors in India and the US. With slow deal closures in India, the startup is banking on US interest to tap into the global data observability market, projected to exceed $4 billion by 2030. The success of CtrlB will depend on its ability to establish trust and carve a niche with its technology and pricing strategy.