Jason Calacanis’ Post

Databricks is in discussions to raise up to $8 billion from investors, valuing the company at $55 billion. This fundraise would be one of the largest in Silicon Valley. Most of the funding is expected to come from secondary share sales, allowing early investors and employees to cash out some of their stock holdings. The funds would also help cover tax costs associated with these share sales. This type of deal can improve employee morale by providing cash payouts without the company going public. Databricks, like other startups, is choosing to stay private longer to avoid the challenges of being a public company. Similar fundraising efforts are being observed with other companies like Stripe and OpenAI. Venture capital firms Thrive Capital and DST Global are reportedly involved in the Databricks fundraising. Databricks did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter. The company's valuation was $43 billion after a previous funding round last year. Databricks' revenue increased to $1.6 billion in the fiscal year ending January 31, which is more than 50% higher than the previous year. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e3rE4pGR #aistartup #aifunding #ai #artificialintelligence

The Information broke the news of Databricks successfully getting lead investments for their $7B fundraising at an incredible $61B valuation from Founders Fund, SoftBank Group Corp., Lightspeed, Thrive Capital and Kleiner Perkins. Even more impressive is that this fundraise is being used to cash out employees and pay the taxes on these share sales. At this valuation, it is now the largest private share sale, surpassing even OpenAI from earlier this year. What do you think? #Management #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #CapitalMarkets #CloudComputing https://lnkd.in/gf6Z7dbc

Insight VC describes Databricks' wild $10B deal and the bad advice the CEO ignored 💼 Exciting times in the world of tech finance! Databricks recently completed an astounding $10 billion fundraising round, setting the stage for investors seeking a piece of this high-demand generational company. 🚀 Here’s a quick look at what transpired: George Mathew, managing director at Insight Partners, shared that the interest was so aggressive that the deal’s initial planned volume quickly escalated. Just weeks earlier, it was estimated around $8 billion, jumping to $10 billion with a whopping $62 billion valuation. That’s a substantial milestone, especially when compared to OpenAI’s previous record! 📈 What’s fascinating is that Databricks had a bit of an identity crisis when it started. The co-founder and CEO, Ali Ghodsi, even received some questionable advice—sadly, from Mathew himself—encouraging him against venturing into the data warehousing market. However, by staying true to his vision and launching Databricks SQL, the company quickly surged as a major competitor to Snowflake in this space. Do you think Ghodsi's decision to ignore that advice highlights the importance of trusting one’s instincts in business? 🤔 💡 Here are some mind-blowing stats: - **Databricks has achieved a 150% increase** in its revenue run rate this year. - It aims to achieve a **$3 billion revenue run rate** by the end of the fiscal year. This level of growth reflects the increasing demand for enterprise solutions, particularly as companies are scrambling to harness high-quality data for deploying powerful LLMs (Large Language Models). It's a period of transformation for Databricks and could signal greater shifts in technology and venture capital in 2024. What other companies do you see on the verge of a major breakthrough this year? 🔍 Let’s keep the discussion going, and share your thoughts below! #Databricks #VentureCapital #Funding #AI #TechInnovation #Startups #BusinessGrowth #Investments Source: "https://lnkd.in/emKjh6Ry"

🚀 Databricks raises $10B at a $62B valuation—what’s behind one of the largest funding rounds ever? Late-stage rounds are getting bigger. IPO timelines are stretching. And profitability takes longer than ever. Databricks’ mega "Series J" round is a case study: 🟩 $10B funding led by Thrive, a16z, and GIC. 🟩 Valuation: $62B (up from $43B). 🟩 Revenue: $3B run rate, growing >60% YoY. CEO Ali Ghodsi says the new cash will fuel: 🔹 Liquidity for employees. 🔹 Acquisitions and international expansion. 🔹 AI hiring to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic. As the IPO remains “a few months away,” this raises bigger questions: ▫️ Are late-stage startups over-reliant on private capital? ▫️ Is the delay to public markets the new normal? ▫️ How sustainable is this “growth now, profit later” trend? 🎥 Watch Ali Ghodsi’s take on Databricks’ $10B raise here 👇 Enjoyed the post? Follow Rubén D. for more You can also join 100,000+ founders and VCs who receive these insights in my weekly newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dtifw4mC

Congrats to Battery Ventures portfolio company Databricks and our friends Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia, Dave Conte, Ron Gabrisko, Andy Kofoid, Hatim Shafique, Naveen Rao and the entire team on their $10B funding round announced today. Seven years ago, when we backed Ali Ghodsi shortly after he took over as CEO, Databricks was in its teens (in revenue😊) replacing Hadoop, and just scratching the surface of the ETL market. After a remarkable run, including reaching almost $3B in annual revenue, the company still has barely scratched the $18B ETL market and finds itself at the early stages of the massive GenAI market ahead. It definitely feels like the path ahead is far more exciting than what we’ve witnessed the last few years as the company takes on an extremely large addressable market.   Five key lessons I learned first hand while supporting this remarkable team on their growth trajectory: 1. Industry often overestimates the near term potential of new tech cycles in the short term but underestimates it in the long run. Cloud providers are now $200B in run-rate revenue and still growing double digits, while data platforms like Databricks promise to grow at an even faster pace addressing a $500B+ data and AI market. 2. Founders who focus on the long game and invest relentlessly in product and growth teams, despite near term market cyclicality, have a chance to leapfrog competition who switch to efficiency too early in a tech cycle. You’re better off getting to a $20-50B revenue scale before optimizing for the 30-40% margins cloud software can garner, rather than achieving these margins early at the sake of growth 3. Open source is a customer acquisition channel, not a business model! Leverage it to engender loyalty from your user base but don’t be afraid to monetize the premium offerings. Business executives would rather run their business on your premium offering knowing you’ll be there to support them and manage their cloud software while they focus on their business objectives 4. Strategic acquisitions usually seem expensive at the time of pursuing them, but seem like a no brainer a few years out! Just look back at Google-YouTube, FB-WhatsApp and the OG moves Databricks has made in CDW with Tabular (now part of Databricks), and in Gen AI with Mosaic 5. Only the paranoid survive!! Founders like Ali are relentless at hiring the best talent (and taking care of them), constantly fine tuning the product, and thinking 2-3 years ahead …. I bet you he’s thinking about the path to $10B in revenue already rather than celebrating this milestone fundraise!   Congrats team Databricks and honored to be part of the journey from the early days…. The best is yet to come!

New Post: Databricks Closes The Biggest Venture Round with $10 Billion Funding - Databricks, a data and AI company, raised $10 billion in a funding round led by Thrive Capital, with participation from prominent firms like Andreessen Horowitz and DST Global. The funds will support AI product development, strategic acquisitions, and international expansion. CEO Ali Ghodsi emphasized the company's commitment to leveraging data across industries, while VP Naveen Rao noted the round's historic scale. Databricks aims to exceed a $3 billion annual revenue run rate by January 2025, reporting over 60% revenue growth. With new global hubs and a partnership with AWS, Databricks solidifies its position in the competitive data solutions market. Read the full article here https://lnkd.in/dJhd7pza #Venturecapital #VC #investment #LP #Limited Partner

Databricks is raising $10 billion in what is likely the largest venture round on record. The money will go toward hiring (both engineering and GTM), acquisitions, and international expansion, CEO Ali Ghodsi told me. That's in addition to buying current and former employee shares. For acquisitions, Databricks will be looking toward AI startups. “There’s lots of smart people out there with great ideas, but maybe monetization didn’t work out the way they had planned,” Ghodsi says. With Kate Clark ! https://lnkd.in/eUhmd4qn

Large ($10B) Late ⏰ Stage Round for Databricks 🦄 How far away is an IPO for Databricks, Stripe and other leading unicorns 🦄? Learn more about this round in the CNBC article 👇 and explore more about scaling your startup through its Zero-to-IPO journey with us at The Savvy Startup Advisor. #CapitalRaising #CapitalMarkets #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #Startups

Software startup scores biggest VC deal of the year A spunky CEO, a beloved product, and a cheeky billboard: That’s how software company Databricks became one of the most valuable private companies in the world. This week, it raised $10 billion—one of the largest fundraising rounds in Silicon Valley history—that values the company at $62 billion. What’s Databricks? Your favorite company’s favorite company. Databricks software enables companies to sift through vast data that needs more sophisticated analysis than a Google Sheets pivot table. It’s used by a range of corporations, from Walgreens to the MLB’s Texas Rangers, and it’s beloved by engineers—many of whom say they couldn’t do what they do without it. How it got here: Databricks has become Silicon Valley royalty under CEO Ali Ghodsi, who’s implemented a cost-cutting strategy and made a series of successful acquisitions: It had 60% year over year revenue growth last quarter. The company expects over $3 billion in annualized revenue for the fiscal year ending in January. What’s next? Opinions are mixed on whether Databricks will go public now that it’s received a cool $10 billy from big-name VC backers like Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital. But it’s setting itself up well: The cash will be used to buy back employees’ company shares and offset the taxes, a key to retaining big talent.

💰 $62 Billion Valuation: Databricks raised $10 billion in a Series J funding round, bringing its valuation to $62 billion, with backing from major investors like Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. 🌍 Strategic Growth Plans: Funds will be used for employee liquidity, developing AI innovations, acquisitions, and expanding globally. 📈 Financial Milestones: The company expects to hit a $3 billion revenue run rate and achieve positive free cash flow by January 2025. #datascience #machinelearning https://lnkd.in/dkdRhvjh