Lucid Imagination Secures Strategic Investment from In-Q-Tel

Relationship to Help Broaden the Use of Apache Lucene/Solr for Full-text Search within the U.S Intelligence Community

June 15, 2009

Lucid Imagination, a commercial open source company dedicated to supporting Apache Lucene and Solr search technologies, today announced a strategic investment from In-Q-Tel (IQT), the independent strategic investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the mission of the CIA and the broader U.S. Intelligence Community. Through the IQT strategic investment, Lucid Imagination will support the United States Intelligence Community, made up of 18 organizations including the Central Intelligence Agency, by providing advanced access to Lucene and Solr search solutions.

This partnership will further accelerate Lucid Imagination’s efforts towards facilitating and broadening the adoption of Lucene/Solr technology within the U.S. Intelligence Community, in addition to the commercial market. Lucid Imagination is proud to be a part of IQT’s efforts at bringing innovative technologies to the U.S. intelligence community.

Lucene/Solr-based search has become one of the fastest-growing segments in the enterprise search market over the past three years, with more than 9,000 downloads per day and over 4,000 organizations using the open source software for some of industry’s most intensive search needs. Many organizations are replacing costly proprietary licensed search software products with Lucene and Solr because, in addition to lower TCO, it offers the most flexible and scalable architecture for developing highly sophisticated full-text search applications.

Previously, companies using Lucene/Solr relied primarily on the open source community for training, documentation and technical support, a fact that kept many others from using or considering the technology. With Lucid imagination, a well-funded commercial entity offering certified distributions of Lucene and Solr, SLA-based support subscriptions, training, high-level consulting and value-added software, both new and existing users now have access to enterprise-grade support and services to optimize their enterprise search efforts. Lucid Imagination’s website is designed to serve as a knowledge portal for the Lucene/Solr user community, with information and resources to help application developers build and deploy Lucene/Solr-based solutions in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

IQT invested in Lucid Imagination because it sees significant potential for Lucene/Solr adoption within its government partners. Several of these entities have already been using the technology and require more reliable, predictable support and services for better risk management. Lucid Imagination provides the commercial backing IQT’s partners need to deploy Lucene/Solr in mission-critical applications.

“We have been witnessing the unprecedented growth potential of Lucene and Solr open source adoption, as we have found that roughly 50 percent of incoming leads are from those that are unfamiliar with the technology, yet trust the reliability and strength of open source technology against traditional proprietary search offerings,” said Eric Gries, CEO of Lucid Imagination. “Lucid Imagination is pleased that IQT has chosen to invest in us and we look forward to expanding our relationship with IQT, its government partners, and the broader Lucene/Solr community as a whole with this investment.”

“Given the increasing adoption of open source in general, and search and information retrieval in particular, Lucid Imagination is an important addition to our technology portfolio,” said Troy M. Pearsall, Executive Vice President of Architecture and Engineering at In-Q-Tel. “While we evaluate many technologies as part of our investment process, we only invest in the most promising capabilities. We recognize the value that Lucid Imagination brings to our customer agencies for their current and future efforts. IQT is fully committed to the commercial success of its portfolio companies and we look forward to working with Lucid Imagination moving forward.”

IQT bases its investments on a three-pronged evaluation process. This includes rigorous vetting for technical excellence, examination of the financial and management strength of the firm, and the quality of the match between the commercial solution and the broadly described problem set of the Intelligence Community.

About Lucid Imagination

Lucid Imagination is a commercial company dedicated to Apache Lucene technology. The company provides free certified distributions, commercial-grade support, training, high-level consulting and value-added software for Lucene and Solr. Lucid Imagination’s goal is to serve as a central resource for the entire Lucene community and make them more productive.  Lucid Imagination is a privately held venture-funded company. The investors include Granite Ventures and Walden International. To learn more visit www.lucidimagination.com.