Databricks to Buy Machine Learning Start-up Tecton in Acquisition Spree

Ali Ghodsi-led AI and data startup Databricks plans to acquire San Francisco-based machine learning company Tecton. The update was shared by CEO and co-founder Ghodsi, who said the deal is aimed at offering full-scale AI building tools for enterprise customers.

He told Reuters that Tecton’s technology and talent could help enhance Databricks’ flagship product, Agent Bricks, which enables enterprises to build and automate workflows with AI agents. The report added that the acquisition could also help cut response times in AI applications, a top priority for companies building interactive services.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2019 by Jeremy Hermann, Kevin Stumpf, and Mike Del Balso, Tecton specialises in AI and machine learning solutions. Its platform automates and orchestrates data pipelines, enabling data scientists and AI/ML engineers to efficiently transform structured and unstructured data into AI-ready context.

According to The Clay, Tecton has a team of 101–250 employees and has raised $160 million across four funding rounds since 2018. This began with a $5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital to support its ML feature platform and the Feast open-source project.

A $20 million Series A and a $35 million Series B followed in 2020, both led by the same investors, to enhance its platform and expand its presence. In 2022, Kleiner Perkins led a $100 million Series C to scale engineering and go-to-market teams, reflecting strong demand in the growing MLOps market, projected to reach $4 billion by 2025.

Databricks and Tecton already had close ties. In 2022, Tecton partnered with both Databricks and its rival Snowflake, with both data platforms also taking investment stakes in the startup.

Ghodsi said that many of Tecton’s clients, including Coinbase, already use Databricks, and the deal will strengthen relationships with shared customers.

The acquisition follows Databricks’ announcement of a new funding round valuing it at over $100 billion, up more than 60% in just eight months.

The move also extends Databricks’ acquisition streak, fuelled by its soaring valuation, as it works to build a full-stack AI platform. So far in 2025, Databricks has acquired BladeBridge to boost AI-driven data warehouse migration and Neon, a Postgres-based AI-powered database startup. Earlier deals included Tabular in 2024 to advance open lakehouse interoperability, Einblick in 2024 for natural language data analysis, and three acquisitions in 2023: Arcion for data ingestion, MosaicML for generative AI, and Okera for AI-focused data governance.