Databricks Acquires Tecton to Enhance AI Agent Capabilities and Real-Time Data Processing

Exclusive: Databricks to buy Sequoia-backed Tecton in AI agent push

Aug 22 (Reuters) - Databricks will acquire machine learning startup Tecton to expand its AI agent offerings, the latest in a string of deals aimed at offering full-scale AI building tools for enterprise customers, its chief executive told Reuters on Friday. Tecton, backed by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, provides software that helps companies analyze and deploy data at scale with low latency. Financial terms of the deal, which consists of Databricks' private shares, were not disclosed. Tecton was last valued at $900 million in a 2022 private funding round and has about 90 employees. The deal comes on the heels of Databricks' announcement this week that it had signed a term sheet for a new funding round at a valuation of more than $100 billion, up more than 60% from eight months ago. Tecton has raised $160 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Ventures since it was founded in 2020 by former Uber engineers who created Michelangelo, an AI platform that Uber uses internally for real-time pricing and other functions. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said Tecton's technology and talent could help to build out Databricks' Agent Bricks, its flagship product for building and automating workflows with AI agents, as competition intensifies to supply AI tools to businesses. Specifically, the acquisition could help to cut response times in AI applications, a top priority for customers building interactive services. "It's really the real-time building block to feed real-time information into the agents," he said, adding that speed is crucial for AI use cases such as voice interaction. "Many of the use cases are directly user-facing and human-facing, and humans hate to wait." The two companies already had close ties. Tecton partnered with Databricks, as well as its competitor Snowflake, in 2022. The two data platforms have also become investors in the startup. Ghodsi said many of Tecton's customers - including crypto exchange Coinbase - already use Databricks' services. He added that the acquisition would help to deepen relationships with clients that rely on both technologies. The deal continues Databricks' acquisition spree, fueled by a soaring private valuation that it has used to buy venture-backed startups while it builds out a comprehensive AI platform. Databricks acquired generative AI platform MosaicML for $1.3 billion in 2023, added Tabular in 2024 to bring the creators of the Apache Iceberg data format in-house, and earlier this year purchased serverless database company Neon for $1 billion to power high-speed AI applications. Reporting by Krystal Hu in Toronto; Editing by Edmund Klamann Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Finance Krystal Hu Thomson Reuters Krystal reports on venture capital and startups for Reuters. She covers Silicon Valley and beyond through the lens of money and characters, with a focus on growth-stage startups, tech investments and AI. She has previously covered M&A for Reuters, breaking stories on Trump's SPAC and Elon Musk's Twitter financing. Previously, she reported on Amazon for Yahoo Finance, and her investigation of the company's retail practice was cited by lawmakers in Congress. Krystal started a career in journalism by writing about tech and politics in China. She has a master's degree from New York University, and enjoys a scoop of Matcha ice cream as much as getting a scoop at work.

Databricks to Acquire Tecton to Boost Real-Time AI Agent Deployment | AIM

The move aims to simplify how enterprises prepare and deliver data for AI-driven applications such as fraud detection, risk scoring, and personalised recommendations. Databricks has announced that it will acquire Tecton, a leading real-time enterprise feature store, to strengthen its AI platform and speed up the deployment of AI agents for businesses. The move aims to simplify how enterprises prepare and deliver data for AI-driven applications such as fraud detection, risk scoring and personalised recommendations. Once integrated, Tecton's capabilities will be embedded directly into Databricks' workflows, enabling customers to build and deploy AI agents more efficiently. "Bringing Tecton into Databricks will unite the best in online data serving with Databricks' Agent Bricks, empowering customers to build, deploy and scale AI agents faster and more confidently than ever before," Databricks said in a statement. AI agents need real-time

Databricks to buy Sequoia-backed Tecton in AI agent push - The Economic Times

Tecton, backed by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, provides software that helps companies analyze and deploy data at scale with low latency. Financial terms of the deal, which consists of Databricks' private shares, were not disclosed. Tecton was last valued at $900 million in a 2022 private funding round and has about 90 employees.Databricks will acquire machine learning startup Tecton to expand its AI agent offerings, the latest in a string of deals aimed at offering full-scale AI building tools for enterprise customers, its chief executive told Reuters on Friday. Tecton, backed by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, provides software that helps companies analyze and deploy data at scale with low latency. Financial terms of the deal, which consists of Databricks' private shares, were not disclosed. Tecton was last valued at $900 million in a 2022 private funding round and has about 90 employees. The deal comes on the heels of Databricks' announcement this week that it had signed a term sheet for a new funding round at a valuation of more than $100 billion, up more than 60% from eight months ago. Tecton has raised $160 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Ventures since it was founded in 2020 by former Uber engineers who created Michelangelo, an AI platform that Uber uses internally for real-time pricing and other functions. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said Tecton's technology and talent could help to build out Databricks' Agent Bricks, its flagship product for building and automating workflows with AI agents, as competition intensifies to supply AI tools to businesses. Specifically, the acquisition could help to cut response times in AI applications, a top priority for customers building interactive services. "It's really the real-time building block to feed real-time information into the agents," he said, adding that speed is crucial for AI use cases such as voice interaction. "Many of the use cases are directly user-facing and human-facing, and humans hate to wait." The two companies already had close ties. Tecton partnered with Databricks, as well as its competitor Snowflake, in 2022. The two data platforms have also become investors in the startup. Ghodsi said many of Tecton's customers - including crypto exchange Coinbase - already use Databricks' services. He added that the acquisition would help to deepen relationships with clients that rely on both technologies. The deal continues Databricks' acquisition spree, fueled by a soaring private valuation that it has used to buy venture-backed startups while it builds out a comprehensive AI platform. Databricks acquired generative AI platform MosaicML for $1.3 billion in 2023, added Tabular in 2024 to bring the creators of the Apache Iceberg data format in-house, and earlier this year purchased serverless database company Neon for $1 billion to power high-speed AI applications.

Databricks to Purchase Tecton to Boost AI Agent Offerings | PYMNTS.com

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, the report said, noting that Tecton was last valued at $900 million in 2022. The company was founded in 2020 by the creators of Uber's AI pricing platform Michelangelo. Ghodsi said Tecton's technology and talent could help build out Databricks' Agent Bricks, its flagship product for building and automating workflows with AI agents, as competition to supply AI tools to businesses heats up. With this deal, the report said, Databricks can help reduce response times in AI applications, a key priority for customers developing interactive services. "It's really the real-time building block to feed real-time information into the agents," he said, adding that speed is crucial for AI use cases such as voice interaction. "Many of the use cases are directly user-facing and human-facing, and humans hate to wait." The companies were already tied together, both by working together and through Databricks investing in Tecton. Ghodsi added that many of Tecton's clients, including crypto exchange Coinbase, already use Databricks' services, meaning the acquisition would help to bolster relationships with clients that depend on both technologies. The deal follows a report last week that Databricks was finalizing a funding round that would help it reach a valuation of $100 billion. The money will be used to help the company attract AI talent, and postpone its plans to go public, The Wall Street Journal reported. "The finance team tells me to not use this term, but I think Databricks has a shot to be a trillion-dollar company," Ghodsi told the newspaper. "But we have a lot of work ahead of us to get there." Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote recently about findings from the PYMNTS Intelligence report "The Agentic Trust Gap: Enterprise CFOs Push Pause on Agentic AI." The report spotlights that while familiarity with agentic AI is nearly universal among CFOs there is hesitation regarding its deployment. Just 15% of executives surveyed said they were even considering putting agentic AI to work, with most still in the early evaluation phase. "This contrasts with the surging adoption of generative AI, which CFOs are increasingly using for tasks like content creation, customer service, coding and data analysis," PYMNTS wrote. "The report shows generative AI's deployment for product and service innovation up 21% and for spotting fraud and errors up 31% since March 2024."

Exclusive-Databricks to buy Sequoia-backed Tecton in AI agent push

(Reuters) -Databricks will acquire machine learning startup Tecton to expand its AI agent offerings, the latest in a string of deals aimed at offering full-scale AI building tools for enterprise customers, its chief executive told Reuters on Friday. Tecton, backed by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, provides software that helps companies analyze and deploy data at scale with low latency. Financial terms of the deal, which consists of Databricks' private shares, were not disclosed. Tecton was last valued at $900 million in a 2022 private funding round and has about 90 employees. The deal comes on the heels of Databricks' announcement this week that it had signed a term sheet for a new funding round at a valuation of more than $100 billion, up more than 60% from eight months ago. Tecton has raised $160 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Ventures since it was founded in 2020 by former Uber engineers who created Michelangelo, an AI platform that Uber uses internally for real-time pricing and other functions. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said Tecton's technology and talent could help to build out Databricks' Agent Bricks, its flagship product for building and automating workflows with AI agents, as competition intensifies to supply AI tools to businesses. Specifically, the acquisition could help to cut response times in AI applications, a top priority for customers building interactive services. "It's really the real-time building block to feed real-time information into the agents," he said, adding that speed is crucial for AI use cases such as voice interaction. "Many of the use cases are directly user-facing and human-facing, and humans hate to wait." The two companies already had close ties. Tecton partnered with Databricks, as well as its competitor Snowflake, in 2022. The two data platforms have also become investors in the startup. Ghodsi said many of Tecton's customers - including crypto exchange Coinbase - already use Databricks' services. He added that the acquisition would help to deepen relationships with clients that rely on both technologies. The deal continues Databricks' acquisition spree, fueled by a soaring private valuation that it has used to buy venture-backed startups while it builds out a comprehensive AI platform. Databricks acquired generative AI platform MosaicML for $1.3 billion in 2023, added Tabular in 2024 to bring the creators of the Apache Iceberg data format in-house, and earlier this year purchased serverless database company Neon for $1 billion to power high-speed AI applications. (Reporting by Krystal Hu in Toronto; Editing by Edmund Klamann)