Data processing startup Databricks raises $140 million

Analytics and AI startup Databricks has raised $140 million in new financing led by Andreessen Horowitz. New Enterprise Associates and Battery Venturesalso participated in the funding round.

The San Francisco-based company plans to use the new funding to bolster its enterprise analytics platform, accelerate growth strategy, and hire more engineering and customer service employees.

Databricks is a cloud-based big-data processing platform built on top of the popular Apache Spark open source project, which was started in 2009 as a UC Berkeley AMPLab research endeavor. Spark went open source in 2010 and its creators went on to found Databricks in 2013.

Databricks' core product is its Unified Analytics platform that's pitched as a tool for data science teams as a means to collaborate with data engineering and lines of business to build data products.

The latest funding round could be a sign that Databricks is finally nearing an initial public offering. Last year, Databricks appointed its VP of engineering and product, Ali Ghodsi, to the CEO role and brought on a new SVP of worldwide sales with experience leading teams to IPO and acquisition.

Read more:

• Spark gets automation: Analyzing code and tuning clusters in production
• Is Databricks vying for a full analytics stack?
• Databricks' leadership changes: path to acquisition/IPO?