$188bn is a large number for a company that keeps insisting it is in no rush to go public. That is the valuation Databricks has reached in a new funding round led by Coatue Management, a figure first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The mark sits well above the up-to-$175bn the firm was reportedly in talks to raise at only weeks earlier, so the round is landing higher than the chatter that trailed it. It also arrives in a market its own chief executive recently dismissed as a terrible year to go public, which makes a private raise the obvious move.
Coatue is investing roughly $3bn, according to the Journal, in a strategic round that draws in both new and existing backers. A term sheet has been signed, and the deal is expected to close later this summer, with neither the fund nor the company commenting publicly.
Strategic rounds of this shape do two useful things at once. They top up a balance sheet for spending on infrastructure and acquisitions, and they let early staff and backers take some money off the table, all without the disclosure a stock market demands.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The valuation caps a giddy climb. Databricks closed a $5bn round at $134bn in February, paired with $2bn of debt, itself a sharp jump from the $62bn it commanded in a $10bn Series J a little over a year before.
