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Backed by the likes of Morgan Stanley, Andreessen Horowitz and Nvidia, Databricks raised more than $500m in its latest Series I round.
Databricks has raised more than $500m in its latest funding round, valuing the US enterprise software company at $43bn even as late-stage funding flounders.
Based in San Francisco, Databricks was founded 10 years ago by the creators of Apache Spar, an open-source analytics engine for large-scale data processing. Databricks makes AI software for building, testing and deploying machine learning and analytics applications.
It raised $1.6bn two years ago at a valuation of $38bn, becoming one of the many ‘decacorn’ start-ups in 2021.
The Series I investment saw big names such as T Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Capital One Ventures, Nvidia, Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global back the round.
As is the case with many tech start-ups, Databricks has increased its focus on AI lately, attracting attention from the likes of Nvidia, the chipmaker powering the generative AI boom.
“Databricks and Nvidia are building transformative AI technology, and we’re excited about the business value and innovation we can bring to our customers,” said Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks.
Nvidia posted record sales of $13.51bn in its second fiscal quarter of the year, a whopping 101pc higher than the same period last year, driven largely by its data centre business. Sales were also up 88pc over the previous quarter and beat Wall Street expectations.
“A new computing era has begun,” said Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang at the time. “Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI.”
In a statement, Databricks said that in the second quarter ended 31 July, its revenue run rate surpassed the $1.5bn mark. The company now has more than 10,000 customers globally.
In recent years, there has also been a rise in demand for skills around Databricks. According to a Udemy report, data analysis and security skills courses have become very popular among learners.
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