Row64 provides a GPU- and CPU-accelerated, real-time visual intelligence platform that enables enterprises to explore and act on massive real-time data instantly. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Row64 CEO Marc Stevens about their visual business intelligence platform.
Marc Stevens’ Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Stevens said:
“I studied computer science in school with a specialization in computer graphics. I began my career at a startup building the first 3D Animation Systems running on Silicon Graphics hardware (for those who remember that company). The software was called Softimage and was used by all the top Film and Games Studios worldwide. Microsoft eventually acquired Softimage to demonstrate that high-end graphics could be brought to the PC. Once that was accomplished, it was sold to Avid Technologies, where I led the 3D division until it was spun out to merge with Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment division. While at Autodesk, we incubated new technologies and delivered industry-leading products that are used in most film & game products today.”
Formation of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Stevens shared:
“I co-founded Row64 with Michael and June Isner. Michael and I collaborated with film and game studios for over 20 years, working on some of the most challenging projects. June is a data scientist who has worked with many Fortune 500 companies. The idea for the company originated from our shared realization that similar technologies to those that power AAA video games – in particular, those technologies powering real-time graphics – could revolutionize how organizations drive decisions from all their data.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Stevens reflected:
“Outside of securing our recent funding round, one of my favorite memories is when we first demonstrated that Row64 could not only power billion-record datasets but also allowed users to interact with them as quickly and easily as a 1,000-row spreadsheet.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Stevens explained:
“Row64 is the only real-time visual intelligence platform built from the ground up to handle large-scale, fast-changing datasets with ultra-low latency. Our platform is powered by a GPU and CPU-accelerated computing stack that updates data at sub-millisecond speeds and serves up interactive visualizations at over 60 frames per second—even with massive datasets. To be clear, Row64 is not “faster BI”. Rather, it puts operational intelligence at the fingertips of decision makers, turning real-time and historical data into action.”
“We leverage technologies like WebAssembly (WASM) and WebGL to deliver rich, interactive visualizations across high-resolution displays on all standard web browsers, combining rich file formats such as 2D and 3D GIS data, images,video, sprites, points, lines, with traditional database data types. Users can instantly drill down from high-level summaries to record-level detail, cross-filter, sort, and search in real-time without any prep or setup, and all while data is updating in real time.”
“We aggregate a wide variety of inputs, including data warehouses, data lakes, streaming data (e.g., Apache Kafka), real-time data from IoT devices, along with standard file types (e.g., .csv), as well as support unstructured data such as PNG, MP4s, PDFs and DWGs. Row64 is designed for today’s scale, speed, and visual precision, and it integrates easily with existing enterprise data pipelines, whether on-prem, in the cloud, or hybrid, which helps companies get up and running quickly and see a faster return on their investment. .”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Stevens acknowledged:
“We work in a variety of sectors, but the issue is essentially the same. Whether it’s a utility company, an enterprise dealing with a cyber attack, management of city infrastructure, or managing a fleet of trucks, enterprises face an overwhelming surge in the volume, velocity, and variety of data they collect, and an urgent need to make sense of it quickly so they can make the best decisions. Most legacy business intelligence (BI) systems lack a powerful computing stack capable of processing today’s data at the volume and speed at which it changes, never mind delivering visual accuracy with ultra-low latency to make those critical decisions on time.”
Evolution of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Stevens noted:
“We’re continually evolving our technology with a focus on performance, reducing the time it takes to ingest, analyze, and visualize data while keeping it intuitive for users. Many of these improvements were delivered in version 3.5, released in early fall, and we’ll continue building on them. Additionally, we want to keep humans in the loop, especially as AI becomes more prevalent. Our platform is built for up-to-the-second monitoring, decision-making support, and triggering follow-on actions– requiredto make important, data-driven decisions faster.” ”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Stevens cited:
“We’ve had several important milestones. Founding the company. Initial proof-of -concepts that led us to be backed by a group of truly innovative angel investors. Signing up our initial pilot customers. Breaking new ground in speed and scale while exploring massive data sets.And closing our seed round. All of those stand out.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding? Stevens revealed:
“Sure. We just raised a $4 million seed round led by Galaxy Interactive, with additional participation from Alumni Ventures and Differential Ventures. This investment will help us scale our go-to-market team and accelerate product development.”
Total Addressable Market (TAM)
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Stevens assessed:
Based on our research, the TAM for Row64 is $85 billion, if not more.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Stevens affirmed:
“In today’s fast-paced, data-driven economy, enterprises face an overwhelming surge in the volume, velocity, and variety of data. Yet, most legacy business intelligence (BI) systems are designed to analyze the past. They can’t deliver the real-time, visual insights needed to act on that information as it happens.”
“The lack of a powerful computing stack and high-quality interactive visualization in those legacy systems requires leaders to rely on scarce data science resources to prep data that can take hours and sometimes even days. Or need to sample data down to a manageable size because systems can’t handle the scale, and miss important details. As a result, organizations often miss critical opportunities or react too late to rapidly changing conditions. With global data creation expected to surpass 400 terabytes per day (the equivalent of 20 trillion high-res photos), solving this challenge has become essential to maintaining a competitive edge.”
“Row64 empowers enterprises to gain live insights from massive datasets. Built on an accelerated computing stack, Row64 enables its customers to visualize and interact with critical operationaldata instantly, facilitating immediate, informed decision-making across the enterprise that scales costs effectively.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Stevens emphasized:
“We’re scaling fast. Our focus is on growing adoption across key verticals and expanding capabilities around real-time performance, visual quality, accuracy, and novel ways to explore and analyze data. We’re also building deeper integrations with enterprise data ecosystems to ensure seamless adoption. Ultimately, we aim to make visual, real-time data interaction the default standard, not a luxury reserved for a few with deep technical expertise.”
“We’re also hiring. Interested candidates can visit our Jobs page on our website.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Stevens concluded:
In a world moving at breakneck speed, decision-makers have grown to expect insight now, not later, which is the challenge we’ve set out to tackle. Every organization needs tools to see the world as it unfolds: in motion, in context, and in the moment. We don’t just want to deliver more visual or interactive dashboards – we want to deliver situational awareness and real-time operational clarity. Where business intelligence analyzes the past, we’re illuminating the now. ”
