# Bala Kuchibhotla

> Bala Kuchibhotla is the co-founder and CEO of Tessell, an enterprise database management company founded in 2021 with Kamal Khanuja and Bakul Banthia. His database engineering career spans Versant, Oracle and Nutanix, where he founded Era. Tessell’s name grew out of a geometry lesson with his daughter; its work centers on operating databases across clouds while preserving customer control.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Tessell
- **Organizations:** Tessell, Nutanix, Oracle, Versant
- **Education:** Master’s degree in Computer Science, Osmania University, Engineering Leadership program, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Founded Nutanix Era, a database management product, while at Nutanix., Co-founded Tessell in 2021., Led Tessell through its announced $60 million Series B in April 2025.

## Career timeline

- **1997–2004** — Worked at Versant as a technical lead and engineering manager.
- **2004–2017** — Worked at Oracle; became vice president and architect in database private and hybrid cloud development.
- **2017–2021** — Founded Nutanix Era within Nutanix; became senior vice president and general manager.
- **2021** — Co-founded Tessell with Kamal Khanuja and Bakul Banthia; became CEO.
- **2022** — Settled an SEC administrative proceeding concerning Nutanix securities trading, without admitting or denying findings; agreed to a $585,960 civil penalty and a cease-and-desist order.
- **2024** — Nutanix sued Tessell alleging intellectual property infringement; allegations are contested and proceedings were stayed pending arbitration.
- **2025** — Tessell announced a $60 million Series B led by WestBridge Capital.

## Achievements

- Founded Nutanix Era, a database management product, while at Nutanix.
- Co-founded Tessell in 2021.
- Led Tessell through its announced $60 million Series B in April 2025.
- Presented Building a DBaaS platform for Postgres at Postgres Conference Silicon Valley in October 2018.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Tessell announced managed Oracle database support on Google Cloud M4N infrastructure; Kuchibhotla was also quoted in Google Cloud’s launch announcement.
- **2026-05** — Tessell appointed Matt McDonough president of go-to-market and Jeff Carter chief strategy officer.
- **2026-04** — Published Tessell at 5: Just the Opening Scene, reflecting on the company’s origins and future AI-related work.
- **2026-02** — Published a founder account of a Fortune 100 energy customer reaching a $200,000 monthly commitment.

## Links

- Website: https://www.tessell.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bala-kuchibhotla

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/bala-kuchibhotla
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25