Databricks, a San Francisco-headquartered data and artificial intelligence (AI) company, has completed a substantial portion of a $10 billion Series J funding round.
The company is raising $10 billion of expected non-dilutive financing and has completed $8.6 billion to date.
The funding values Databricks at $62 billion and is led by US venture capital firm Thrive Capital. Along with Thrive, the round is co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Insight Partners and WCM Investment Management. Other participants in the round include existing investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and new investors ICONIQ Growth, MGX, Sands Capital and Wellington Management. The exact amounts are undisclosed.
Databricks has grown over 60% year-over-year in recent quarters largely as interest in AI ramps up, as highlighted earlier in the year in FinanceAsia. Databricks said that it intends to invest this capital towards new AI products, acquisitions, and "significant expansion" of its international operations, including Asia Pacific (Apac) and the Middle East.
Earlier this year in October, Databricks announced its new European regional hub in London and then in August its Apac and Japan (APJ) regional hub in Singapore. It has also recently expanded its presence in Latin America in Mexico City, in October, and most recently, in December, in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia.
The firm added that the capital is expected to be used towards providing liquidity for current and former employees, as well as pay related taxes.
“We were substantially oversubscribed with this round and are super excited to bring on some of the world’s most well-known investors who have a deep conviction in our vision. These are still the early days of AI. We are positioning the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to deliver long-term value for our customers and our team is committed to helping companies across every industry build data intelligence,” said Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks, in the statement. “We’re building transformative data and AI infrastructure and excited to move aggressively in service of our customers and their success.”
The aim of the firm is to "democratise" access to data and AI, making it easier for organisations to harness the power of their data for analytics, machine learning, and AI applications.
According to a media statement, customers can use Databricks’ open source platform to treat diseases and cancer earlier, identify new ways to combat climate change, detect financial fraud, develop pharmaceuticals faster, reduce time to mental health intervention and decrease local financial inequality.
“Databricks, driven by its mission to democratise data and AI, has emerged as the platform of choice,” said Joshua Kushner, CEO of Thrive Capital. “We have witnessed the team's unrelenting execution, and consider it an honour to be partners with the company for the long term.”
The firm has grown over 60% year-over-year in the third quarter ended October 31, 2024, and is expecting to cross $3 billion revenue run-rate and be free cash flow positive in the fourth quarter ending January 31, 2025; it will have over 500 customers consuming at over $1 million annual revenue run-rate.
