Romanian-founded US company Databricks secures USD 5 billion funding
<p>Databricks, a tech giant with two Romanians among its founders, secured USD 5 billion in funding from creditors such as Blackstone, Apollo Global Management Inc., and Blue Owl Capital Inc., marking the largest amount raised in the company's history.</p>
<p>A group of banks, including JPMorgan, Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, and BNP Paribas SA, provided a USD 2.25 billion term loan, as well as a USD 500 million tranche that Databricks can access later. The debt is structured around the company’s annual recurring revenue, typically derived from long-term contracts, rather than earnings.</p>
<p>Databricks, already one of the most valuable private firms in the world, plans to use the funds to cover taxes related to employee stock sales.</p>
<p>The debt financing agreement coincides with a USD 10 billion equity funding round announced by Databricks at the end of last year, which raised the company’s valuation to USD 62 billion, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-13/databricks-inks-5-billion-financing-from-private-credit-banks">Bloomberg</a>.</p>
<p>Databricks announced that it would use the funds from the USD 10 billion equity funding round for new AI-based products, acquisitions, a significant expansion of international go-to-market operations, and to buy back shares from current and former employees. </p>
<p>In December, Databricks stated that it expects to surpass USD 3 billion in annualized revenue and generate positive cash flow in the fourth fiscal quarter, ending January 31. The company reported over a 60% increase in sales during the preceding three months, a rapid growth rate.</p>
<p>Headquartered in San Francisco, Databricks specializes in big data management and artificial intelligence. Among its founders are Romanians Ion Stoica and Matei Zaharia.</p>
<p>Stoica, 59, is the Executive Chairman of the company. He is also a professor at UC Berkeley and co-director of AMPLab. </p>
<p>Zaharia, 39, is the CTO and co-founder of Databricks, as well as an associate professor of computer science at UC Berkeley. He started the Apache Spark project during his Ph.D. in 2009 and has contributed to other widely used data and AI software, including MLflow, Delta Lake, and Dolly.</p>
<p><em><a href="mailto:radu@romania-insider.com">radu@romania-insider.com</a></em></p>
<p><em>(Photo source: Timon Schneider | <a href="https://www.dreamstime.com/">Dreamstime.com</a>)</em></p>