Enterprise Weekly #473: Databricks vs. Snowflake, Enterprise Operators Retreat, and More
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This week, Databricks outbid Snowflake and Confluent to acquire Tabular, which specializes in cloud data optimization, for over $1B. This acquisition brings the two leading open-source lakehouse formats together under Databricks’ single platform: Tabular’s Apache Iceberg and the Databricks’s Delta Lake.
As Databricks nears an IPO, this acquisition is seen as a defensive strategy to counter Iceberg's rising popularity and ensure better interoperability between Iceberg and Delta Lake. Despite the high $1B price tag and concerns over Databricks' capital allocation strategy, the purchase aims to address competitive pressures from Snowflake, which has recently open-sourced its Polaris Catalog.
This is Databricks’s second billion-dollar AI and data-related acquisition in the past year, following their purchase of MosaicML for $1.3B last June. To no surprise, AI and ML still dominate dealmaking with investment momentum increasing since the start of 2024.
Here in NYC, it’s NY Tech Week. To shake things up, we got out of the city and brought 150+ of NYC's top Saas and infrastructure operators up to Bear Mountain State Park for our NY Enterprise Operators Retreat on Wednesday.
This year, we focused on the challenging journey of building from zero to one. Our hearts were full seeing so many authentic relationships forming and real talk convos flowing over tactical talks, outdoor summer activities, so much ice cream, and brewery drinks.
🖥️ Join our most tactical (virtual) Enterprise Masterclasses:
Tuesday, June 18: How to Price Your Product at Seed with repeat founder and GTM advisor Rob Bailey
Wednesday, June 26: 10 Quick Wins to Grow Pipeline with OpenView’s Kyle Poyar
Wednesday, July 24: 5 Battle-Tested Leadership Tactics of Highly Successful Founders with David Politis, Founder of BetterCloud
📚 Read more news:
Business Insider: Behind The Data Center Boom
CNBC: Nvidia Passes Apple in Market Cap As Second-Most Valuable Public U.S. Company
Crunchbase: The Portion Of US VC Funding That Went To Female Founders Hit A New Peak In 2023, Thanks To Massive AI Deals
TechCrunch: Carta’s Valuation To Be Cut By $6.5B In Upcoming Secondary Sale
WSJ: The Opaque Investment Empire Making OpenAI’s Sam Altman Rich
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Michael Hanson on what NOT to do during demos
*Learn more on leveling up discovery and demo calls with our playbooks from our Work-Bench sales advisor
Company: Courier Health
Role: Account Executive
Technology: Patient Engagement Platform
Funding: $4M from Work-Bench
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Liminal raises $5M led by Fin Capital
Risk / Security • Seed • Denver, CO
Founder: Steven Walchek (CEO)
bem raises $3.7M led by Uncork Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Hoonify Technologies raises $3.8M led by Next Frontier Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Albuquerque, NM
Greptile raises $4M led by Initialized Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Hoop raises $5M led by Index Ventures
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • New York, NY
Cartwheel raises $5.6M led by Accel
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • New York, NY
Inventive raises $6.5M led by Wing VC
Sales / Marketing • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Rising Team raises $8M led by Zeal Capital Partners
HR Tech • Series A • Menlo Park, CA
Unison raises $9.8M led by Good Growth Capital, Uncork Capital, Amplify Partners and Others
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Stacklet raises $14.5M led by SineWave Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • Arlington, VA
Sixfold raises $15M led by Salesforce Ventures
Future of Work • Series A • New York, NY
Tobiko Data raises $21.8M led by Unusual Ventures and Theory Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed & Series A • San Mateo, CA
Cube raises $25M led by Databricks Ventures, Decibel and Others
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Imagino raises $27.2M led by Cathay Innovation
Sales / Marketing • Series A • London, UK
Ashby raises $30M led by Lachy Groom
Future of Work • Series C • San Francisco, CA
Twelve Labs raises $50M led by NVentures and NEA
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Pika raises $80M led by Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Greycroft
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B • Palo Alto, CA
Storyblok raises $80M led by Brighton Park Capital
Productivity / Collaboration • Series C • Linz, Austria
Cloudera acquires Verta for an Undisclosed Amount
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • Menlo Park, CA