Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
Your premier source for technology news, insights, and analysis. Covering the latest in AI, startups, cybersecurity, and innovation.
Get the latest technology updates delivered straight to your inbox.
Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Reach out to us on any subject.
© 2026 The Tech Buzz. All rights reserved.
Hadoop Creator's AI Startup Raises $20M to Fix Big Data Access
Scale AI's former CTO launches Isotopes with sophisticated analytics agent solution
PUBLISHED: Fri, Sep 5, 2025, 3:10 PM UTC | UPDATED: Tue, Jan 27, 2026, 10:26 PM UTC
4 mins read
Isotopes raises $20M seed led by NTTVC for AI analytics agent
Co-founded by Hadoop creator Arun Murthy, former Scale AI CTO
Agent 'Aidnn' tackles 20-year-old enterprise data accessibility problem
Already filed 10 patents competing against Salesforce Tableau and emerging startups
Isotopes emerged from stealth Thursday with a $20 million seed round, positioning itself to solve big data's most persistent problem: bridging the gap between those who manage data infrastructure and those who actually need to use it. Led by Hadoop co-creator and former Scale AI CTO Arun Murthy, the startup promises its AI agent can finally democratize enterprise data access through natural language queries.
Isotopes just threw down the gauntlet in enterprise AI with a $20 million declaration that it can solve big data's oldest problem. The startup emerged from stealth Thursday with an AI agent designed to bridge the decades-old chasm between data engineers who build systems and business users who need insights.
The pedigree behind this ambitious claim runs deep. Co-founder and CEO Arun Murthy helped create Hadoop over two decades ago at Yahoo, sparking the initial Big Data revolution of the 2010s. After co-founding Hortonworks in 2011 and taking it public four years later, Murthy witnessed firsthand how even data companies struggled with data access. "It was embarrassing," he told TechCrunch. "We were a big data company selling this" yet couldn't answer Wall Street analysts' questions during earnings calls.
That frustration led Murthy to Scale AI in 2021, where he served as CTO under founder Alexandr Wang. The experience was "like getting a PhD at Scale," Murthy explains, giving him deep insights into what drives AI models and how to improve them. But when former Hortonworks colleague Prasanth Jayachandra reached out about starting their own venture, the opportunity proved irresistible.
Isotopes launched in late 2024 with a third co-founder, Gopal Vijayaraghavan, also from the Hortonworks era. Their seed round came from NTTVC's Vab Goel, formerly of NorWest Ventures, validating the founders' vision for reimagining enterprise analytics.
The company's AI agent, called Aidnn, goes far beyond simple chatbots that have flooded the market. When business managers ask questions in natural language, the agent doesn't just search existing data—it orchestrates complex multi-step processes to create the insights they need. "The data that you want to chat with actually doesn't exist, at least the form that you need to chat with," Murthy explained to . The agent executes sophisticated workflows: extracting metadata, cleaning and normalizing information, joining datasets, prorating revenue, and aggregating results.
Jan 27
Jan 27
Jan 27
Jan 27
Jan 27
Jan 27
What sets Isotopes apart is its founders' deep understanding of enterprise data infrastructure. The agent can access information wherever it lives—from Salesforce CRMs to Snowflake data warehouses to cloud storage—then clean and contextualize it automatically. The system maintains extensive context memory for complex analytical tasks while showing its reasoning, assumptions, and highlighting data anomalies.
The sophistication has already generated 10 patent applications, a remarkable number for a startup barely a year old. Isotopes also addresses enterprise security concerns by promising customers can deploy the agent without sharing sensitive data with underlying AI model providers.
Yet the competitive landscape remains fierce. Salesforce has integrated agents into Tableau as part of its billion-agent AI strategy, while startups like WisdomAI are pursuing similar enterprise analytics opportunities. The challenge for Isotopes will be proving its technical sophistication translates to market adoption.
Murthy's track record suggests the team understands both sides of this equation. Hadoop's initial success came from solving real infrastructure problems, but its eventual decline showed how quickly enterprise technology preferences can shift. The cloud storage revolution that undermined Hadoop's market position forced the merger of Hortonworks with rival Cloudera, which was eventually taken private in 2021 after activist investor Carl Icahn's involvement.
This time, Isotopes is betting on AI agents as the next fundamental shift in how enterprises interact with their data. The $20 million seed round provides runway to prove the concept and scale beyond early customers who are willing to bet on the founders' reputation.
The enterprise AI agent market is heating up, but Isotopes enters with unique credibility. Murthy and his team have lived through big data's evolution from Hadoop's rise to its cloud-driven transformation, giving them deep insights into enterprise pain points. Whether their sophisticated AI agent can succeed where decades of business intelligence tools have struggled remains to be seen, but the $20 million seed round suggests investors believe the Hadoop creator's second act could be even more transformative than his first.
