Vercel acquires Gel Data team to bolster Python support

Vercel has brought on the team behind Gel Data, a Postgres-based data platform, to accelerate its investment in Python tooling and infrastructure. The acquisition team is led by Python core developer Yury Selivanov and contributor Elvis Pranskevichus, who will focus on building out Python support across Vercel’s AI Cloud offerings.

Ecosystem contributions: PSF sponsorship, core maintainer funding

As part of the move, Vercel is making a series of commitments aimed at supporting the Python community:

  • Python Software Foundation sponsorship: Vercel is joining as a Maintaining-level sponsor, which includes presence at PyCon US and backing for the PSF’s mission.
  • Core maintainer sponsorship: Vercel is funding Python core developer Serhiy Storchaka for one year through the PSF. Storchaka is among the top three Python core committers over the last decade, with contributions ranging from the core interpreter to standard library improvements and performance work.
  • Conference and meetup support: Vercel plans to sponsor Python conferences and local meetups, and is organizing its first Vercel + Python hackathon in San Francisco in February. Details will be posted on the Vercel events calendar.

“Python gave me a career, my best friends, and an amazing community. Helping the next generation ship faster is how I give back, and Vercel has the vision, team, and resources to actually make it a reality.”

Yury Selivanov

Track record: uvloop, asyncpg, and asyncio

Selivanov is the creator of uvloop, a high-performance event loop for Python that sees roughly 3 million downloads per day. It underpins FastAPI and numerous other Python applications requiring speed and reliability. Selivanov also contributed Python’s async/await syntax and authored seven other Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs), influencing asyncio’s design before it was adopted into the standard library.

Together with Pranskevichus, Selivanov also created asyncpg, the widely used PostgreSQL client library. Both remain active contributors to open source Python projects and will continue that work in their new roles at Vercel, where they’ll help improve Python framework support and streamline deployment workflows.

What changes for Gel Data users

Gel Data will wind down on January 31, 2026. The platform itself will not be commercialized, though its open source components will continue to be available. Vercel has stated this acquisition is about Python expertise and community investment, not entering the database market. Database providers on the Vercel Marketplace remain the company’s partner channel, with no plans to change that approach.

“Building the future of Python at Vercel is a natural fit because we share the same bedrock commitment to elegant tooling, no-fuss hosting, and a commitment to the OSS community. We aimed to challenge the state of the art when we founded MagicStack and then Gel, and we will continue to push the envelope with this new support.”

Elvis Pranskevichus

Python-first roadmap

Vercel’s near-term roadmap includes improving Python framework support, making Python deployments as straightforward as those for JavaScript frameworks, and contributing back to community libraries and tools. The company says it will take a “building in public” approach, sharing progress and soliciting feedback as development proceeds.

This initial investment marks what Vercel frames as a long-term commitment to Python. The company emphasizes its role in supporting developer-preferred tools and libraries, alongside existing JavaScript frameworks such as Next.js, Nuxt, and SvelteKit. The addition of Selivanov, Pranskevichus, and the former Gel Data engineers expands that focus to the Python side of the ecosystem.

Disclosure: An investment fund associated with Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch held a passive investment in Gel Data. This acquisition was approved by an independent M&A Committee of Vercel’s board of directors, which did not include Mr. Rauch.