Elasticsearch raises $24 million; big data analytics

It was only last November when Amsterdam-based enterprise data startup Elasticsearch announced $10 million in funding.

Today, the company announced more than double that -- $24 million, courtesy of the U.K.'s Index Ventures -- as it steams ahead in the development of its open source web search platform for businesses.

"Raising a Series B allows us to execute faster on our growth plans for the company and thereby do a better job at serving our rapidly growing customer base on both sides of the Atlantic, in the U.S. and Europe," chief executive Steven Schuurman writes. "The driver of this growth is the rapid evolution of search itself."

The company's goal is to make a data query more robust than it is today. Thanks to an explosion of data and data types, the search mechanism is more ubiquitous than ever. But today's mechanisms for doing so are falling behind, even as the bar is raising for the average person. (Real-time search results, anyone?)

The idea is to build a system that can accommodate for rapidly expanding data volumes. Plus, new abilities are now expected: insights and trends, often available in graphic formats and in real time.

Big data: not just for big companies.

The startup says it plans to spend its money on developing a shorter user learning curve ("time-to-epiphany," in Schuurman's startup lingo), a deeper documentation library and a more reliable technical back end. In other words, Elasticsearch is starting to see the problems of scale, as its customer base incorporates the company's technology into their normal operations. Bring on the growing pains.