SBVA emerges as Databricks investor in prior $5B round

Databricks sells a cloud platform that gives companies one place to prepare and govern data, run analytics and build AI applications. Venture firm SBVA has now been identified as a new investor in the company’s $5 billion round, ChosunBiz reported on Oct. 2, citing the venture-capital industry. Databricks closed that financing in August at a $190 billion valuation; SBVA’s individual commitment was not disclosed.

A customer can connect corporate data that would otherwise sit across separate systems, then use it for analysis, applications and AI agents. Databricks says Genie turns internal data into answers and actions, Lakebase stores live application data for agents, and Unity AI Gateway routes work among models while enforcing access and spending controls.

Databricks’ August announcement named Coatue, Blackstone, MGX, Sixth Street Growth and other participants, but did not mention SBVA. The newer ChosunBiz report says the firm joined that same round as a new investor. That makes the Oct. 2 development a disclosure about who financed an already completed deal—not another $5 billion raise.

The size of the original financing reflected unusually heavy investor demand. Chief Executive Ali Ghodsi told TechCrunch that Databricks initially wanted $1 billion but received $15 billion of interest before settling on $5 billion. He said large cloud commitments, AI research and acquisitions make the business expensive to fund.

Databricks said its revenue run rate had passed $7 billion and was growing more than 80% year over year when the round closed. It also reported more than 20,000 organizational customers, including 70% of the Fortune 500, with over 1,000 customers consuming the platform at annualized rates above $1 million.

SBVA’s rationale is that wider corporate adoption of AI will increase demand for the infrastructure used to manage and apply business data. Its chief executive told ChosunBiz that the firm plans to support Databricks’ growth in Korea and elsewhere in Asia, although neither source announced a related customer initiative or disclosed the size of SBVA’s investment.