Databricks hits $43bn valuation with $500m Series I funding

Data and AI company Databricks has announced its Series I funding round, raising over $500 million and bringing the company’s valuation to $43 billion. The Series I funding has set the price per share at $73.5 and is spearheaded by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Alongside T. Rowe Price, existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, and Tiger Global, among others, participated. New investors include Capital One Ventures, Ghisallo Capital Management, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and NVIDIA.

The Series I funding round of Databricks follows its recent $1.3 billion acquisition of generative AI platform MosaicML.

Industry Leaders Weigh in on Databricks’ Unifying Data and AI Strategy

Ali Ghodsi, Co-Founder and CEO of Databricks, stated, “The commitment from long-term focused strategic and financial partners reflects Databricks’ continued momentum, the rapid customer adoption of the Databricks Lakehouse, and the success customers are seeing from moving to a unified data and AI platform.” He went on to add that, “Databricks and NVIDIA are building transformative AI technology, and we’re excited about the business value and innovation we can bring to our customers.”

The Lakehouse: The Core of Databricks’ Business Strategy

The Databricks Lakehouse is a unified platform combining data, analytics, and AI, allowing enterprise customers to manage, govern, and derive insights faster. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, mentioned, “Enterprise data is a goldmine for generative AI. Databricks is doing incredible work with NVIDIA technology to accelerate data processing and generative AI models.”

Investor Sentiments on Databricks’ Current Trajectory

“Data and AI have rapidly become the centerpiece of many business strategies. Databricks has not only pioneered the Lakehouse category with a world-class team and product, but it is now also at the forefront of Generative AI for the enterprise,” said Alan Tu, Lead Private Equity Analyst at T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

Olivia Steedman, Executive Managing Director at Ontario Teachers’ Venture Growth, echoed the sentiment, stating, “Teachers’ Venture Growth is excited to invest in Databricks and sees tremendous growth potential for the business as enterprises increasingly deploy AI across their operations. As investors focused on long-term value creation, we look forward to working with Ali and Databricks’ strong management team on the next phase of their growth journey.”

Databricks’ Series I funding solidifies its market position as a leader in the data and AI industry, with key financial backing from both old and new investors. The funding round is viewed as a crucial growth milestone for Databricks and its Lakehouse technology, which focuses on unifying data and AI for the enterprise.