Weaviate, which provides technology used for developing generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, has raised $50m in its Series B funding round.

Index Ventures led the round, which saw participation from Battery Ventures.

The Amsterdam-headquartered firm’s existing investors NEA, Cortical Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners, and ING Ventures also joined the round.

Weaviate, which provides access to an open-source AI-native vector database, plans to use the funding to speed up the development of its database.

The proceeds will also be used to support the new Weaviate Cloud Service to meet the needs of the AI application development market.

Vectors are representations of documents, photos, customers, products, and other objects generated by AI.

Weaviate CEO and co-founder Bob van Luijt said: “The Weaviate vector database is used as core infrastructure in the emerging AI-native ecosystem. It allows users, from startups to enterprises, to create a new wave of applications ranging from custom-made search and recommendation systems to ChatGPT plugins.”

The open source downloads on the platform have surpassed the two million mark since Weaviate raised its series A funding in early 2022.

Index Ventures partner Erin Price-Wright said: “Weaviate’s vector database and search engine provides a critical piece of infrastructure that’s helping to drive a massive AI platform shift.

“This is the best-in-class product for developers building with AI and we are thrilled to be partnering with them to help drive the next phase of growth.”