Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi wanted to raise $1B. Investors wanted to hand him $15B. The company settled on $5B at a $190B valuation in a round that closed Thursday.
The oversubscription was accidental, Ghodsi told TechCrunch. The Information published a report about the fundraise during a Databricks conference in June, and the phones lit up. “My phone blew up,” he recalled. “It was like the worst timing for us because we were busy with our conference.”
Coatue, Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price and Sixth Street Growth led the round, joined by more than a half-dozen mostly returning backers. The new capital follows a quarter in which annualized recurring revenue jumped more than 80% year over year to north of $7B.
Part of the money will go into Lakebase, Databricks’ year-old managed version of the open-source PostgreSQL database, which has already crossed $100M in revenue. Lakehouse, its data warehousing product, more than doubled to $1.5B+. Some Lakebase work will build on technology from Electric DB, a startup Databricks acquired earlier this week.
The raise gives Ghodsi room to keep investing in AI out of the public eye. He told CNBC he still wants an IPO one day, and with a roster of investors this deep, the exit pressure will not go away. But when $15B of demand shows up on its own, there is little reason to rush.
