Only have 1 minute? Read these 3 takeaways:
- US-based data analytics software company Databricks, with a Romanian co-founder and CTO, announces securing over $500 million in new funding round.
- The round was led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global, and Tiger Global, as well as Capital One and Nvidia.
- The latest investment round comes as Databricks continues to build momentum in the AI sector, including acquisition of machine learning startup MosaicML earlier this year.
Databricks’ $500 million round marks one of the largest private financing milestones to take place this year. Unlike some tech startups that are eyeing the public markets for future capital, Databricks has still found ample private investment support.
The firm’s previous funding round took place in the favorable market conditions of 2021, where it was valued at $38 billion. Databricks is now valued at $43 billion.
Boarding the AI rocketship
The San-Franscisco-based company was co-founded in 2013 by Romanian engineers and entrepreneurs Ion Stoica (Executive Chairman) and Matei Zaharia (CTO), together with Ali Ghodsi (CEO), and Reynold Xin. The company sprang to life from Zaharia and Ghodi’s earlier software solution for large data volumes, Apache Spark. Zaharia is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Stanford University, while Stoica is a Professor and leader of the RISELab IT lab at the Berkeley University of California.
Despite a conservative market, the company’s recent traction and strategic market moves along new technology trends likely drew investors in.
According to Databricks, the company’s revenues surpassed $1.5 billion in the Q2 2023, serving over 10,000 customers. Furthermore, despite a decline in cloud software stocks, including a 45% drop in value for competitor Snowflake, Databricks has maintained its share price. Interestingly, Capital One’s venture arm also participated for the first time, despite being a significant customer of Snowflake, Databricks’ competitor.
The latest investment round comes as Databricks capitalized on AI. In July this year, the company acquired MosaicML for $1.3 billion. The software startup aims to efficiently run large language models that can produce natural-sounding text. Notably, chipmaker Nvidia has joined Databricks as a new investor, marking a strategic alignment as both companies deepen their involvement in AI.
This story is in development. Stay tuned.
