Databricks has acquired Row Zero, an early-stage cloud spreadsheet startup, and plans to integrate it with its Genie AI agent. The deal took shape after Databricks' finance team began using Row Zero to handle live spreadsheets with more than a million rows, pairing it with Genie, which answers business questions from data using natural language. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said spreadsheets are an interface business analysts love, making it natural to combine business intelligence, agents, and spreadsheets.
The acquisition fits a broader strategy of letting users work with enterprise data through familiar spreadsheet formulas while keeping the underlying information secure in Databricks' cloud, rather than exporting it to shared files. Terms were not disclosed. Row Zero, founded by former AWS and Tableau engineers, had raised $10 million at a valuation of around $40 million.
Databricks has been on an acquisition spree, buying Quotient AI and SiftD.ai in March, Panther in June, and Electric last month. Ghodsi said the company intends to make many more such acquisitions. Databricks recently closed another $5 billion in funding and reports a $7 billion annualized revenue run rate.