Databricks formed its corporate venture capital subsidiary Databricks Ventures (DV) in 2021 and three years on, the cloud data platform has grown into one of the enterprise software industry’s most prominent early-stage investors under director of corporate development and ventures Phil Shin.
Shin joined the company in early 2022 and works alongside vice president Andrew Ferguson. The unit closed eight deals in the first quarter of this year alone, buoyed by the boom in startups, combining its focus areas of data, analytics and artificial intelligence.
Those rounds focused heavily on AI and included a $200m-plus series D that valued generative AI development platform Glean at $2.2bn, as well as investments in two more generative AI unicorns, Mistral and Perplexity AI. Of those eight startups, six are less than three years old.
“We are honoured to invest in the best companies across the data and AI landscape, deepening our relationships with companies whose products are highly valued”
DV takes a relatively hands-off approach, choosing not to lead rounds or take board seats. It is emblematic of a young unit from a young company. Databricks itself is barely a decade old and is yet to reach the public markets – Shin was, in fact, only its second corporate development hire – but it is a venture unit in a hurry.
DV scored its first exit in the past year, courtesy of its parent company, which agreed to pay in excess of $100m for data mobility platform Arcion – double the valuation at which DV invested 18 months earlier.
“We are honoured to invest in the best companies across the data and AI landscape, deepening our relationships with companies whose products are highly valued by our joint customers,” says Shin.
Prior to joining DV, Shin spent nearly four years as director of corporate development for fellow enterprise software producer Salesforce, during which time the latter invested in Databricks. His early career featured analyst roles at Morgan Stanley and Disney. This is his debut appearance on the Powerlist.
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100
individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.