Blist, the company that is redefining the database market, recently announced a $6.5 million Series A investment from Frazier Technology Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures. The company also announced that it will use the additional funding to accelerate the development and marketing of its new online social database service that allies the simplicity of a spreadsheet with the power of a fully featured relational database. In connection with the Series A financing, Scott Darling, general partner at Frazier Technology Ventures, and Ken Gullicksen, partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, have been added to Blist's board of directors.

"There's a tremendous opportunity to help both consumers and small businesses democratize the function of organizing data online, but it requires going well beyond the capabilities of today's databases and spreadsheets," said Scott Darling, general partner at Frazier Technology Ventures. "Blist's meticulous vision and history of building world-class products uniquely positions them to drive the evolution of the database landscape for mainstream users."

Designed in the 1980s and without significant recent innovations, traditional database products from companies like Oracle and IBM are costly and complicated to use. Due to their inherent complexity, these products typically require a database administrator, are not viable for non-technical people, and are too expensive for small organizations. As a result, consumers and small businesses have been forced to organize information in non-database applications like Excel or in complicated databases that require knowledge of SQL.

"Blist delivers the biggest advancement for consumers and small businesses in the database market since Microsoft launched Access in the early '90s," said Gary Morgenthaler, partner at Morgenthaler Ventures and former founder and CEO of Ingres Corporation and Illustra Information Technologies. "As the first and only online social database service in the market, Blist is poised to address the rising demand for user-friendly databases, and we are excited to be an investor in this company."

Ken Gullicksen, partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, adds, "With a solid track record of business plan execution, Blist makes a compelling investment story."

Unlike traditional databases and spreadsheets, Blist provides everyday mainstream users with a strikingly intuitive and flexible way to design simple or sophisticated databases that meet their specific needs without requiring users to have experience with programming or databases. Using Blist, mainstream users can structure and catalogue all types of information and then create communities around the data they share. Blist is an ideal solution for creating anything from party or wedding guest lists, fantasy football statistics, and personal finances to professional information such as sales contacts, project milestones, campaign tracking, status reports, and more.

"It's extremely satisfying to have two prestigious investment partners believe in Blist's mission of building the world's easiest database and who see the enormous opportunity to breathe new life and innovation into the database market," said Kevin Merritt, CEO and founder of Blist.