Databricks, the Data and AI company, today announced it has experienced over 70% year-over-year growth for its EMEA business over the last fiscal year, driven by a surge in demand for data and AI capabilities amongst enterprises across the region.
Globally, Databricks reached over $1.6 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ending January 31, 2024, representing over 50% year-over-year growth, driven by rapid product innovation. Databricks also completed a series of acquisitions in its most recent fiscal year, including the acquisitions of MosaicML, Arcion, Okera, Einblick and Rubicon. The company also recently invested in French-based Mistral AI and announced the launch of DBRX, a general-purpose large language model (LLM) that outperforms all established open source models on standard benchmarks.
Alongside these acquisitions, Databricks continues to strengthen its product offerings and add breadth to its capabilities. In particular, there is an increased appetite in EMEA for Databricks SQL, the intelligent data warehouse. Built with DatabricksIQ, a Data Intelligence Engine that understands the uniqueness of your data, Databricks SQL democratises analytics for technical and business users alike.
Databricks announced a roadmap of new offices and office expansions for 2024, including a new seven-story EMEA headquarters in London, planned to open in H2. This space on London’s iconic Windmill Street will be home to 400 employees. For the first time, Databricks will open new offices in Madrid and Milan in H2, alongside moving to a brand new office space in Paris. Databricks also plans to expand its existing office space in Amsterdam, Belgrade, and Munich.
Earlier this year, the team also opened an engineering site in Zagreb. These investments signal strong growth in the European region and enable Databricks to work even more closely with its local customers to meet their evolving needs.
Data-forward brands such as AXA, FrieslandCampina, Gousto, HSBC, LaLiga, L’Oréal, Michelin, Rolls Royce, Shell, and Unilever have adopted the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to drive business outcomes and solve some of the world’s toughest problems.
Databricks continues to form strategic alliances with key partners in the region, including Accenture, Avanade, Capgemini, Deloitte, EY, Salesforce and SAP. Last year, the company also announced the launch of infrastructure in the AWS Paris region and Azure Qatar to help local businesses transform with data-driven applications and use cases. Furthermore, the EMEA business saw a significant inflection (over 90% year-over-year growth) in the number of customers, partners and data community completing training on how to use the latest Databricks technology.
“There can be no generative AI without good data. The Data Intelligence Platform is a critical enabler for businesses across EMEA to stand out from their competitors, scale AI, and recognise tangible business outcomes,” said Samuel Bonamigo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Databricks EMEA. “Since joining Databricks in 2022, I have been amazed at the sheer pace of innovation coming out of the organisation, and I’ve had the pleasure to work with such a strong ecosystem of partners and customers across EMEA.”
“Working with Databricks has created a step change in terms of how our internal stakeholders view data and AI”, said Paul Hollands, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, AXA UK. “Before working with Databricks, AXA UK had a disparate set of data platforms that didn’t scale, making it difficult to fully leverage machine learning and data across the organisation. Databricks’ unified Data Intelligence Platform has enabled us to go from data engineering to data science really efficiently. This is pivotal to success in serving customers, supporting colleagues, and ultimately driving value for the business.”
“Before implementing the Mosaic AI training platform from Databricks, it was difficult to build out our Gen AI training infrastructure,” said Paul van der Boor, Senior Director of Data Science at Prosus. “Thanks to Mosaic AI, part of the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, we can productionise models much faster, at a much lower cost for many applications. This has been pivotal for scaling our AI and ML efforts with our own models for applications such as Toqan, our agent-based AI co-worker for our portfolio companies and their customers.”
Databricks has made a series of new hires and strategic appointments across EMEA to strengthen its industry-specific expertise in key verticals such as financial services, retail, and manufacturing. In 2024, the company announced the launch of its Data Intelligence Platform for the Communications sector to further help global telecoms and Communications Service Providers (CSPs) use data and AI to improve customer experiences and identify opportunities for revenue growth. Furthermore, the recent launch of the Data Intelligence Platform for Energy will help customers deliver a smarter energy system. European adopters include Shell, TotalEnergies, and Octopus Energy.
“We have only scratched the surface of what a generative AI-powered future could look like for customers across all industries and of all sizes. It’s been a pivotal year for Databricks EMEA and with a world-class team, new offices, and collaboration with our partners and customers, I’m excited for the year ahead,” said Bonamigo.
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