Andreessen Horowitz has led a $400m round for the data preparation software provider based on UC Berkeley research, more than doubling its valuation to $6.2bn in eight months.
US-based data analytics software producer Databricks raised $400m yesterday in a series F round featuring software provider Microsoft that valued it at $6.2bn.
Andreessen Horowitz led the round, investing with Alkeon Capital Management, Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Geodesic Capital, Green Bay Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Tiger Global Management and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock and T. Rowe Price.
Andreessen Horowitz provided the money through LSV Fund I, the $2bn late-stage fund it launched in May this year.
Founded in 2013, Databricks has built a data management software platform that helps clients prepare data for analytics and processing on a vast scale.
The company is built on open-source data analytics platform Apache Spark, itself also developed by some of the Databricks’ co-founders in the AMPLab at University of California, Berkeley.
Databricks chairman Ion Stoica and chief executive Ali Ghodsi remain faculty members at the university, while chief technologist officer Matei Zaharia has joined Stanford University. The three co-founded the company with Ben Horowitz, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
The series F funding will allow Databricks to scale its research and development activities and accelerate its international expansion efforts. It intends to invest €100m ($111m) into its Netherlands-based European Development Center over the next three years.
Capital will also go towards the formation of dedicated engineering teams that will advance work on the company’s recently launched data management and machine learning tools. Databricks has now received $897m in funding altogether.
Microsoft took part in the company’s $250m series E round in February this year, which was also led by Andreessen Horowitz and backed by NEA and Coatue Management at a $2.75bn valuation. Its earlier investors include Battery Ventures.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
