Internet technology provider Google agreed yesterday to pay $2.6bn to acquire Looker, a US-based data analytics technology provider backed by CapitalG, the corporate venturing unit formerly known as Google Capital.
Looker has built a platform that can take business intelligence data from a range of sources and use a proprietary data modelling code language to unify it, allowing it to be used in other applications, analysed together more thoroughly and more easily shared.
The company’s technology will be added to Google’s cloud computing services provider, Google Cloud, expanding the breadth of its business analytics capabilities and enabling users to quantify data from different sources using the same metrics.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said in a blog post announcing the deal that Looker and Google Cloud have 350 customers in common who are already using the products in tandem.
Kurian added: “Google Cloud is being used by many of the leading organisations in the world for analytics and decision-making. The combination of Google Cloud and Looker will enable customers to harness data in new ways to drive their digital transformation.
“We remain committed to our multi-cloud strategy and will retain and expand Looker’s capabilities to analyse data across clouds.”
Looker had raised approximately $281m since being founded in 2012, most recently securing $103m in a December 2018 series E round led by investment firm Premji Invest and backed by Cross Creek Advisors and unnamed existing investors, at a $1.6bn valuation.
CapitalG, which like Google forms part of internet and technology group Alphabet, had led Looker’s $81.5m series D round in 2017, investing alongside Goldman Sachs, Geodesic Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Meritech Capital.
The latter four had provided $48m in series C funding for the company in 2016, the year after a $30m series B round led by Meritech that included Sapphire Ventures and existing investors Redpoint Ventures, First Round and PivotNorth.
