San Francisco-based Databricks, a data and AI company, announced its Series J funding. It is raising $10B (approximately €9.51B) in non-dilutive financing, with $8.6B (approximately €8.18B) secured so far.
The funding, led by Thrive Capital and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners, and WCM Investment Management, values the company at $62B (approximately €58.98B).
The round also saw existing investors, including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and new investors ICONIQ Growth, MGX, Sands Capital, and Wellington Management.
Capital utilisation
Databricks plans to use the funds to develop new AI products, pursue acquisitions, and expand international operations. Additionally, the capital will provide liquidity for employees, cover related taxes, and support its first quarter of expected positive free cash flow.
Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks, says, “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. We’re building transformative data and AI infrastructure and excited to move aggressively in service of our customers and their success.”
Recent growth and expansion
Databricks has reported significant growth, including over 60 per cent year-over-year growth in Q3 2024 and an expected $3B revenue run rate with positive free cash flow in Q4 2025.
The company maintains non-GAAP subscription gross margins above 80 per cent and has over 500 customers generating more than $1M in annual revenue run rate. Its Databricks SQL product has reached a $600M revenue run rate, growing over 150 per cent year-over-year.
Databricks has expanded globally, establishing a European regional hub in London and an Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) hub in Singapore. It has also increased its presence in Latin America and the Middle East to better serve its international customers.
In the UK, the company has over 400 employees and has experienced over 60 per cent annualised growth in its UK business over the past three years, driven by demand from organisations like Gousto, Heathrow, Rolls Royce, SEGA Europe, Shell, and Virgin Atlantic.
As part of its UK expansion, Databricks partnered with over 35 universities, including BPP University, LSE, Newcastle University, University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford, and Queen Mary University, through its global University Alliance Programme to equip data science students with skills in big data programming and analytics.
Earlier this year, Databricks announced an investment and partnership with Paris-based Mistral AI, a company specialising in generative artificial intelligence.
Unifying data, analytics, and AI
The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform simplifies access to data and AI, enabling organisations to leverage their data for analytics, machine learning, and AI applications.
Built on an open-source foundation, it supports innovation to boost revenue, reduce costs, and mitigate risks.
Customers use the platform for diverse purposes, including early disease detection, combating climate change, fraud prevention, faster drug development, mental health intervention, and addressing financial inequality.
