US-based data analytics software developer Databricks secured $1bn yesterday in a series G round featuring software provider Microsoft, e-commerce group Amazon, internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet and enterprise software producer Salesforce.
The round was led by investment firm Franklin Templeton and included investment and financial services group Fidelity, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Whale Rock, Andreessen Horowitz, Alkeon Capital Management and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
Coatue Management, Tiger Global Management, GIC, Discovery Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Founders Circle Capital, Geodesic, Green Bay Ventures, Greenoaks Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Octahedron Capital filled out the round with funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price.
Amazon, Alphabet and Salesforce participated through Amazon Web Services (AWS), CapitalG and Salesforce Ventures respectively, and the round valued Databricks at $28bn, up from $6.2bn in its last round, a $400m series F in late 2019.
Databricks has created a data management platform that can handle all structured, semi-structured and unstructured data for enterprise-scale analytics.
The technology is based on Apache Spark, the open-source analytics software developed at University of California, Berkeley, by some of Databricks’ co-founders, including chief executive Ali Ghodsi, who continues to be an adjunct professor at the university.
The funding has been allocated to scaling Databricks and accelerating the adoption of its products. It has now secured close to $1.9bn in total.
Andreessen Horowitz led the series F, which included Microsoft, Alkeon Capital, Coatue, Dragoneer, Geodesic Capital, Green Bay Ventures, NEA, Tiger Global and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and T. Rowe Price.
Microsoft first invested in the company through a $250m series E round in early 2019 that was also led by Andreessen Horowitz and backed by fellow existing investor NEA as well as Coatue, at a $2.75bn valuation. Its earlier investors include Battery Ventures.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.