In a market where companies routinely get late-stage funding of $100 million or more, DataBricks again shows the strong investor interest in AI data platforms.
AI analytics company Databricks recently added over a billion dollars in series H funding, demonstrating the continued enthusiasm for artificial intelligence data platforms. The money will fund further research and development for the company’s “data lakehouse” approach.
Spending on multiple fronts
DataBricks’ primary strategy revolves around blending data lake and warehouse concepts— the balance of data warehouse characteristics with the more open formats of a data lake approach. The company’s estimated $38 billion in potential revenue and suspected IPO has DataBricks invested in remaining a leader in the data lakehouse market, with market competitors like AWS and Microsoft adopting lakehouse strategies.
Funding will also help the company explore new markets, bringing in former Salesforce exec Andrew Kofoid and making lakehouse a mainstream concept. The company will also expand its partner ecosystem and industry solutions.
The company is well on its way to $1 billion in revenue just this year. DataBricks has pioneered the lakehouse concept but still sees a need to leverage funding to remain the leading provider.
See also: Neo4j Funding Latest in Real-Time Market Investments
The data warehouse renaissance
Amid speculation that the data warehouse is dead, DataBricks funding shows that developers and investors aren’t ready to let it go just yet. In fact, many warehouse partners note that the addition of open format data lake capability, instead of keeping the warehouse and the lake in strict separation, means a new way forward.
Thanks to this eighth major funding round, DataBricks is showing that the warehouse concept may not be obsolete but certainly needs an evolution. Its last round back in February raised an additional $1 billion, but the company hasn’t announced plans for IPO just yet.
New investors include the University of California Endowment, Clearbridge, and BNY Mellon. The round also included most previous investors contributing additional funds, bringing the total so far for the year to a massive $3.5 billion.
