Databricks raises $15,3 billion at a valuation of $62 billion; Meta becomes a’strategic shareholder’
Data analytics platform Databricks has confirmed that it has closed a previously announced $10 billion in Series J equity financing at a $62 billion valuation.
The San Francisco-based company also added a further $5.25 billion in debt financing, funded by JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, among other “leading financial institutions and alternative asset managers,” according to a press release. In its 12-year history, the company has raised approximately $19 billion (of which $14 billion was equity).
Databricks is used in major data science projects. For example, companies use the platform to pool and analyze vast swathes of data from disparate systems to glean insights — for instance, a retailer might want to combine datasets to figure out what products sell best, at what times of year, to forecast inventory requirements.
More recently, Databricks has gained prominence as a major cog in AI projects. Databricks is a platform that combines and standardizes data, both structured and unstructured, which is vital to building and deploying machine-learning models. This latest Series J round, first announced in December when Databricks raised $8.6billion, brings in new and established investors. In addition to QIA (Temasek and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund), Facebook’s parent company Meta is backing Databricks as a “strategic investor.”
It’s worth noting that corporate investment into AI-aligned companies has become something of a trend, with Meta and Amazon joining a $1 billion investment into data-labelling startup Scale AI last year.
With this fresh cash injection, Databricks said that it plans to invest in new AI products, bolster its global “go to market” operations, and fund new acquisitions.
But the big $62 billion question now, however, is what is happening with regards to Databricks’ longstanding IPO plans?
Back in December, Databricks’ CEO Ali Ghodsi said it would be “dumb to IPO” last year, what with the election and new administration, as well as ongoing anxiety over the economy. He said that an IPO could happen as early as 2025.
However the company said it was putting some cash to provide liquidity to “current employees and former staff,” indicating that an IPO could happen later than earlier.
