Data intelligence company Databricks has raised $5 billion in a round led by Coatue. The round lifts the valuation of the company, founded in 2013, to $190 billion.

A second round in quick succession

This is the company's second large round in a short span. Databricks had raised roughly $3 billion at a $188 billion valuation only a few weeks earlier. The difference shows in both the amount and the price: the new round is about twice the size, at a valuation $2 billion higher.

The investor list is unusually crowded — more than 20 institutions took part. Among them are Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price Associates, T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Sixth Street Growth, BOND, Clearlake Capital, Point72, Premji Invest, TPG, Andreessen Horowitz, Dragoneer, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Insight Partners, J.P. Morgan Private Capital, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, NEA, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Temasek, Thrive Capital and WCM Investment Management.

The composition matters as much as the length. Alongside classic venture funds sit pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and traditional asset managers. Participation from that class of investor is usually read as a sign of late pre-IPO rounds.

Where the money goes

Databricks says the new capital is earmarked for three things:

  • Advancing AI research and infrastructure
  • Expanding cloud capacity
  • Financing further acquisitions

The company was founded by Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia, Reynold Xin, Ion Stoica, Patrick Wendell, Andy Konwinski and Scott Shenker.

What it does

Databricks lets companies collect, store and analyse large volumes of data, and build AI applications on top of it. Its Data Intelligence Platform consolidates data from different sources into a single environment so businesses can reach insights faster. The cloud-based data warehouse remains one of the company's most important revenue streams.

Its operations have recently expanded further into AI. Lakebase provides database infrastructure built to manage the data AI agents need. Genie lets companies analyse data and answer business questions in natural language, with the aim of letting non-technical staff work with corporate data directly.

The company is also growing its product ecosystem by acquiring startups in AI and data infrastructure, concentrated in AI-assisted cybersecurity, databases and data management.

How to read the valuation

Two rounds a few weeks apart, with the valuation moving from $188 billion to $190 billion, is not on its own proof that the company is repricing fast. At this size, valuation is typically negotiated alongside the round itself, and a $2 billion difference is a little over 1 percent on a $190 billion base.

What matters more is where the money comes from. Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and traditional asset managers meeting in the same round signals that the company has moved past venture scale into institutional-investor territory. That mix of investors tends to arrive with an expectation of liquidity.