SAN FRANCISCO: Databricks Inc is raising US$10bil in new funding, a massive cash injection that will take the software maker’s valuation to US$62bil.

The startup, which is among the world’s most highly valued closely held companies, “intends to invest this capital towards new artificial intelligence (AI) products, acquisitions and significant expansion of its international go-to-market operations”, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

The capital will also go towards buying shares owned by current and former employees.

Funding was led by Thrive Capital with participation from firms including Andreessen Horowitz and DST Global.

“These guys are execution machines. They are ready to be a public company,” Thrive Capital partner Vince Hankes said in an interview.

“Raising a little capital and providing liquidity to employees takes some of that pressure off.”

In the financial year ending in January 2025, Databricks expects to cross US$3bil in annualised revenue.

Sales increased more than 60% in the most recent quarter, which ended in October, a rapid pace of expansion at a time when many software makers are struggling with growth.

Maintaining that clip of growth means expanding Databricks’ go-to-market operation and engineering talent, chief executive officer Ali Ghodsi said in an interview.

As for potential acquisitions, Ghodsi said he’s looking at AI-focused startups for technology and talent.

“There’s lots of smart people out there with great ideas, but maybe monetisation didn’t work out the way they had planned,” Ghodsi said in an interview.

Databricks makes software to ingest, analyse and build AI apps with complicated data from a variety of sources.

Its primary competitors are generally considered to be Snowflake Inc as well as services offered by cloud infrastructure vendors like Microsoft Corp’s Fabric.

Investors have long awaited an initial public offering by Databricks, but the company’s ability to raise big sums from the private markets has given it the ability to hold off.

“The absolute theoretical earliest we would go public would be next year,” Ghodsi said.

“But this gives us some flexibility in already providing liquidity opportunity to our employees.”

Other backers in the new round include GIC Pte Ltd, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Insight Partners and WCM Investment Management.

Lightspeed Venture Partners also participated in the deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

The firm invested US$200mil in the round, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

Representatives for Lightspeed and Databricks declined to comment on the details of the round.

The company’s product that most directly competes with Snowflake, Databricks SQL, hit a US$600mil revenue run-rate, with growth above 150% annually, the company said.

More than 500 customers are on track to spend more than US$1mil a year on Databricks’ platform, the company said.

The funding will also be used to help pay taxes related to employees’ selling their shares.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Databricks is seeking about US$2.5bil of debt from private credit lenders to help offset associated tax burdens.

Thrive has participated in other large employee tender offers, or transactions that allow employees to sell their shares, for companies including OpenAI and Stripe.

“It’s become an expectation for employees, because the alternative is to go to Google or Meta and get liquid stock,” Thrive’s Hankes said.

“These are really unique circumstances that enable these companies to be more competitive against big tech.”

A valuation of US$62bil places Databricks behind only a handful of non-public companies, such as OpenAI and SpaceX, according to data from CB Insights. — Bloomberg