Databricks, a leader in AI and data infrastructure, has secured more than $1.5 billion in new capital at a valuation of $38 billion—an increase of $10 billion since February 2021. The latest round is led by Counterpoint Global, a Morgan Stanley fund, and other new investors, including Baillie Gifford, UC Investments, and ClearBridge. An earlier raise of $1 billion included investments from Amazon, Google, and Salesforce, as well as previous investors Microsoft, Fidelity, Whale Rock, and Franklin Templeton. Databricks has also reached annual recurring revenue of $600 million and counting, up from $425 million in 2020.
The company is led by CEO and UC Berkeley professor Ali Ghodsi, one of the minds behind Apache Spark. With Databricks’ latest capital raise, Ghodsi hopes to rapidly react to the high demand for its Lakehouse data technology and solidify his company’s position at the head of the quickly growing big data market. The CEO has yet to announce plans to take Databricks public, and with its latest fundraise it has more than enough capital to stay private. In tandem with the funding round, Databricks also announced the appointment of Andy Kofoid, a former Salesforce executive, as President of Global Field Operations.
