The record-breaking investment round of Databricks

On August 31, Databricks stated its new round of investment of $ 1.6 billion that led the company to reach $38 billion.

It's the Series H funding round of the AI-powered data firm, led by Counterpoint Global. UC Investments, ClearBridge, and Baillie Gifford were the other fresh backers to participate in the round.

Databricks has now successfully raised an overall 3.5 billion dollars in private finance.

Its current round of funding came merely 7 months following the business secured 1 billion dollars at a capitalization of $28 billion. The recent valuation reflects a monthly increase in the paper value of more than 1 billion dollars.

Formed in 2013, Databricks creates both open source and commercial items for businesses. Databricks combines all the structured and unstructured data of the companies in one place that the companies were storing in data warehouses for many decades. The corporation refers to its system as a data "lakehouse." It is a mix of a data lake (low-cost unprocessed data stores) & a data warehouse (expensive structured data needed for analytics). Presently, over 5000 firms have signed up on Databricks platform, including Comcast, Shell, and HSBC. Databricks ranks 2nd on the Cloud 100 list of Forbes 2021. 

CEO & co-founder Ali Ghodsi expects that the firm's new funding would help it gain market share. He states that the funds will improve its data "lakehouse" technology by introducing new security and control capabilities. 

Databricks aims to have over 3,000 workers by 2021, implying a 700-person recruitment drive within the next four months. The firm will do such to ramp up sales, marketing, and R&D operations. Ghodsi also noted that he is competing against well-funded rivals and needs the finances to play well. He emphasized that they are fighting against some small companies looking for seed money rather than the giant vendors. Google, Amazon, and Snowflake are among those vying for a slice of the burgeoning market sector identified by Databricks.

As part of its fundraising release, Databricks has crossed the 600 million dollars ARR benchmark. To better highlight how swiftly business is developing at scale, it concluded 2020 with a 425 million dollars ARR. According to the corporation, the new ARR statistic reflects a 75 per cent increase in YOY. As per the Bessemer Cloud Index, the performance is impressive for a firm of that size. Databricks is now worth 63 times its existing ARR at its latest valuation. So, while Databricks isn't inexpensive, it can expand to a level that puts its most current private estimate tenable when it goes public. It can be so, provided that the company doesn't establish a new, higher standard for future results by boosting prior to making it public.

Ghodsi refused to provide an IPO timeline, and it's unclear if the firm will seek a standard IPO or proceed to gather private capital.  Nevertheless, Databricks has grown to the point where it can only be sold to any giant tech firm or IPO.

Databricks also revealed the hiring of experienced sales veteran Andy Kofoid to expand its worldwide reach. The appointment comes on the heels of Fermin Serna's nomination, indicating a typical executive committee rollout at businesses preparing for a public offering. At Databricks, Kofoid will take over as president of worldwide site activities.

There's a lot more about Databricks financial situation, which is not revealed yet. Let's see what's next for this futuristic and ever-present software company.