Databricks Ventures’ Investment in Anomalo & The Future of Data + AI

Data is the new oil, fueling innovation and driving business decisions in the digital age. But not all data is created equal. Using high-quality data when making mission-critical decisions or training powerful AI models is essential to avoid “garbage in, garbage out.” Challenges with data quality are one of the largest obstacles for businesses to maximize the value of their data and AI, with one study finding that 91% of IT decision makers believe they need to improve data quality within their organization — and 77% expressing distrust with their current business data.

As companies increasingly rely on data for insights and customer experiences, they use platforms like Databricks to develop AI models and distribute insights internally. Data quality continues to be a widespread concern for companies of all sizes, and in response to this continued issue, Anomalo and Databricks are deepening their partnership to face these challenges. We’re excited to announce Databricks Ventures’ strategic investment in our recent $33M Series B fundraising round, which was led by SignalFire with participation from Norwest Venture Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, and Foundation Capital.

This investment from Databricks Ventures is a testament to our shared vision for the future of data and AI, and reflects the natural symbiosis between the two companies. “With data quality at the center of every organization’s data strategy, Anomalo has been a standout partner for Databricks and for customers leveraging our Data Intelligence Platform,” said Andrew Ferguson, VP of Corporate Development and Ventures at Databricks. “Anomalo’s AI-powered monitoring and data observability capabilities make it easy for Databricks customers to ensure that trusted, reliable data is driving their business. This investment is an exciting next step for our partnership and we look forward to delivering more value for our joint customers in the future.”

The present success of the partnership is due in large part to the many parallels between the two companies. Databricks brings AI to data, while Anomalo brings AI to data quality, making the partnership a natural fit. These companies have both set new standards in their respective fields, with Databricks continuing to push the boundaries of what a data platform can be, and Anomalo redefining how companies think about data quality and what an AI-powered monitoring solution is capable of. This AI-driven approach enables Anomalo to automatically detect data quality issues and their root causes, safeguarding BI dashboards, automated reporting, and ML models from data inaccuracies. For mutual customers of Anomalo and Databricks, this means they can take full advantage of the power of the Databricks Intelligence Platform without needing to continually address the data quality issues that plague enterprise organizations.

Databricks customers such as Casey’s, Lebara, and Block have seen success using Anomalo in conjunction with the Databricks Intelligence Platform to ensure data integrity and reliability everywhere their business uses data. These companies leverage Anomalo’s unique AI-powered approach to data monitoring — an approach which caught the attention of Databricks Ventures and was the driving force behind the strategic investment and partnership. With Anomalo’s native integration, Databricks customers can expand beyond standard data observability, easily monitoring the contents of any Databricks table in a matter of minutes (without the need for extensive configuration). In addition, Anomalo’s deep integration with key Databricks features like Unity Catalog, Delta Live Tables, and Databricks Workflows allows organizations to have confidence in the data quality across every layer of their stack.

“Anomalo has been the silver bullet in helping us promote trust in data across our organization,” said Tim Ng, Data Products Engineering Lead at Block. “Since migrating to Anomalo, it is easy to detect false positives and has removed dependencies on data engineering. This makes both my data engineers and data consumers happy as it means less time fire-fighting issues, and more time using data to build products our customers love.”

In the past year, Anomalo has seen record revenue growth, ending fiscal Q3 with 177% ARR (annual recurring revenue) growth year-over-year. Since Anomalo’s Series A fundraise in 2021, ARR has skyrocketed by over 15x, and Anomalo has gained significant traction with large enterprises, doubling Fortune 500 customers in Q3 alone. The growing adoption by some of the largest companies across sectors like financial services, insurance, retail, and technology underscores the scale of the enterprise data quality challenge.

As Anomalo and Databricks continue to push the boundaries of enterprise data and AI, companies will be empowered to reimagine what is possible with high-quality data on a world-class data platform. To explore how this partnership can transform your company’s approach to data quality and harness the full potential of your data and AI, we invite you to connect with the teams at Databricks or Anomalo.