5 Interesting Learnings from Databricks at $1.5 Billion in ARR

"Like its rival Snowflake, Databricks business remains extremely healthy."

So Databricks hasn’t IPO’d yet — hopefully it will in the next 9-12 months to help keep the just reopened IPO window … well, open.  But as part of its most recent private round at a $43 Billion valuation, it did disclose enough interesting metrics to do 5+ Interesting Learnings:

#1.  Growing Over 50% at $1.5 Billion in ARR. 

This is mighty impressive in general, but especially in today’s still murky “macro” environment of higher interest rates and more budget scrutiny.  Like its rival Snowflake, Databricks business remains extremely healthy.  Growth at $800m ARR, during Peak Best of Times, was about 75%.

#2.  Strongest Quarter Ever for Quarter-over-Quarter Growth

So Databricks was a bit vaguer here, but the important takeaway is that absolute new bookings continue to hit records.

#3.  300 $1M+ Customers, Out of 10,000+ Total

So likely 40% or so of Databricks is from $1M+ deals.

#4.  Snowflake Was Growing Even Faster at $1.5 Billion in ARR — But That Was a Vastly Different Time.

Tomasz Tunguz put together a great comparison chart here.  But bear in mind, Snowflake was crossing $1.5 Billion in ARR in The Best of Times.  The fact that Databricks is still growing 50%+ today is just as incredible.

#5. Non-GAAP subscription gross margins of 85%.

I would have thought storing massive amounts of data would lead to a lot of margin pressure.  It hasn’t!

#6.  Cash Burn of $430 Million Last Year, Going Up

Databricks is investing in growth!  The Information claims burn this year may be as high as $900m, but that does sound high.