The IPO window may have cracked open, but it seems some former startups have no intention of going public. Makes sense, in a way: IPOs were traditionally a way to raise money, and if you can manage to raise ungodly amounts without having to put your company through public scrutiny, why do it?
Databricks is proving that point: the data intelligence company has just raised more than $4 billion in a Series L funding round at a $134 billion valuation — up 34% from the $100 billion valuation that it achieved just three months ago.
This is Databricks’ third major venture fundraise in less than a year, and it comes as the company focuses on building products that address the needs of the AI revolution: a database for AI agents, an AI agent platform, and apps that let companies build and deploy data and AI applications.
The company is investing heavily in its database for AI agents, known as Lakebase, which is based on the open source database Postgres (enabled by the $1-billion acquisition of a startup called Neon), and is aimed at corporate developers’ vibe-coding projects. Meanwhile, its AI agent platform, Agent Bricks, is aimed at helping businesses build and deploy AI agents that can tap into their data. The company has also struck hefty deals worth hundreds of millions with AI labs Anthropic and OpenAI to offer their models within its enterprise products.
Series L rounds aren’t really common, but the fact that Datbricks has managed to raise venture funding at ever-increasing valuations (it was valued at $60 billion around this time last year) indicates how strongly investors believe in the power of helping companies use data to fuel their AI efforts.
Indeed, Databricks on Tuesday said it now generates run-rate revenue of more than $4.8 billion, up 55% from a year earlier, of which more than $1 billion came from its AI products.
“The parallel rise of vibe coding and generative AI is accelerating the development of data-intelligent applications in the enterprise. Databricks will use this new capital to help customers build AI apps and agents on their proprietary data, leveraging Lakebase as the system of record, Databricks Apps as the user experience layer, and Agent Bricks to power multi-agent systems,” the company said in a press release.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the company will also use the new money to add thousands of new jobs in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, as well as bring on more AI researchers.
“Enterprises are rapidly reimagining how they build intelligent applications, and the convergence of generative AI with new coding paradigms is opening the door to entirely new workloads,” Databricks’ co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi said in a statement.
The round was led by Insight Partners, Fidelity, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Andreessen Horowitz, BlackRock, Blackstone, Coatue, GIC, MGX, NEA, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Robinhood Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates, Temasek, Thrive Capital, and Winslow Capital also participated.
