Alation Looks To Accelerate AI Agentic Workflow Development With Acquisition

Alation will add Numbers Station’s technology to its data intelligence platform, providing organizations with the ability to build and deploy next-generation AI-native analytics applications fueled by agentic data workflows.

Data intelligence platform provider Alation has acquired Numbers Station, a startup pioneer in building AI agents for managing data workflows.

Alation said the combination of its platform with Numbers Station’s technology will boost the ability of data and engineering teams to quickly build and deploy a new class of AI-native analytics applications featuring “agentic workflows that operate with enterprise-grade governance and context,” according to the Alation announcement.

With the wave of AI development that began with the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, developers have sought ways to apply AI to data problems while often struggling to provide AI systems with the data they need to operate effectively.

Many businesses have sought to apply their structured corporate data, such as financial transactions and customer records, to AI. But AI agents, according to Alation, have difficulty understanding and acting on data due to incomplete semantics and data definitions, unclear data governance policies, missing context of data lineage and poor data quality.

That often leads to AI agents producing inaccurate outputs and violating data privacy and compliance requirements, according to Alation.

Alation’s data intelligence platform provides a range of data search, data catalog, data lineage and data governance capabilities. The company, founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., has developed several of its own agents including Documentation Agent, Data Quality Agent and Data Products Builder Agent, according to its website.

Numbers Station, founded in 2021, got its start at Stanford University’s AI lab where co-founders CEO Chris Aberger, Chief Scientist Ines Chami and Chief Architect Sen Wu met under the mentorship of co-founder Chris Re and authored an academic paper about applying AI to data problems, according to the Numbers Station website.

That led to the company’s founding and development of its software that enables artificial intelligence data workflows. The technology uses a multi-agent architecture to automate end-to-end data workflows, enabling users to generate insights and act on data through specialized AI agents, according to a description of Numbers Stations’ product on the Crunchbase website.

By combining Numbers Station’s agents with Alation’s metadata foundation, customers can build intelligent applications that reason over structured data, understand business context, and automate real-time decision-making—all while maintaining rigorous governance and compliance standards, according to the two companies.

“Numbers Station has proven the impact AI agents can have in the enterprise when companies are able to trust this new way of working and brings an exceptional team that shares our obsession with empowering data users,” said Alation co-founder and CEO Satyen Sangani, in a statement. “Together, we’re laying the foundation for the next decade of enterprise data intelligence—one where humans and agents collaborate seamlessly to turn data into action.”

“From the start, our vision has been to enable anyone to be a data app builder,” Numbers Station CEO Aberger said in the statement. “By joining forces with Alation, we’re pairing our AI-native foundation with the most trusted enterprise data intelligence platform. This unlocks a future where agents don’t just find data—they do more with it.”

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Numbers Station had raised $17 million in a Series A funding round with investors Madrona, Factory and Norwest participating.

The Numbers Station team will join Alation, the companies said. Numbers Station is based in Menlo Park, Calif. with some team members in Seattle and elsewhere around the world.