Databricks Makes Equity Investment In Key Services Partner

Databricks Ventures has made an equity investment of undisclosed size in AI and data consulting firm Indicium, which provides a range of services around Databricks software.

Databricks has made an equity investment in Indicium, a New York-based AI and data consulting services provider that has worked with the fast-growing data and AI platform developer since 2017.

Details about the investment from Databricks Ventures (Databricks’ strategic investment arm), including the dollar value or the size of the equity stake, were not disclosed.

The announcement said the investment “strengthens the bonds between the industry leaders” as clients work to modernize their data systems and adopt AI.

“This is a huge confirmation from Databricks of the great work that we have been doing for the past eight years, the great partner that we are for them …a nd we’re quite excited to get closer and closer with them,” said Indicium co-founder and CEO Matheus Dellagnelo (pictured) in an interview with CRN.

Indicium, founded in 2017, is a global data and AI services company that helps clients—especially in the financial services space—migrate and optimize data systems, develop scalable data products and leverage data resources for operational AI. In June, for example, the company launched its AI Data Squads data migration service, based on the company’s proprietary IndiMesh framework, for complex data transformation and migration projects.

Indicium achieved Databricks Elite partner status last year. But the service provider has been working with Databricks’ tools and software since Indicium’s 2017 founding, Dellagnelo told CRN. The two began working together more closely in 2022 when Indicium became a formal partner and Dellagnelo said that in 2024 more than 50 percent of Indicium’s clients were using Databricks products.

“Databricks became the North Star,” the Indicium CEO said of his company’s focus. Indicium today provides a range of technology solutions based on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, related expertise and consulting services, and training programs for Databricks users.

Indicium, in the investment announcement, said its staff of 450 has earned 150 Databricks certifications and logged more than 500,000 hours delivering solutions on the Databricks platform.

Indicium also has developed a great deal of intellectual property assets around the Databricks platform. In March of this year Indicium expanded its Databricks practice when it debuted the Unity Catalog Migration solution, a new unified data and AI asset governance solution for Databricks’ Unity Catalog, part of the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

Databricks is itself privately held and has raised a huge amount of venture capital: Just last week the San Francisco-based company closed a $1 billion Series K funding round that gave the company a market capitalization of more than $100 billion.

Databricks, through Databricks Ventures, has invested in 40 companies—some of which the company has since acquired, including Arcion, Neon and just last month Tecton.

Dellagnelo said the equity investment signals that Databricks recognizes how well Indicium understands the Databricks platform and the high level of services the partner is providing. “We are the best service provider out there specializing in modern data and they are the best platform for modern data as well. Now we are combining forces.”

Dellagnelo said that with the investment, the two companies will be even more aligned around Databricks’ technology road map. That, according to the announcement, includes plans around recently announced Databricks products such as the Agent Bricks software agent development tools and Lakebase database system Databricks debuted at its Data + AI Summit in June.

Databricks also will provide Indicium with additional engineering resources and information about the vendor’s marketing/go-to-market plans as the two work more closely together to co-develop AI and data solutions, the companies said.

“At Databricks, we’re committed to advancing how enterprises unlock the full power of data and AI,” said Databricks Senior Vice President Kori O’Brien in a statement. “Indicium’s expertise in leading large-scale data and AI projects on Databricks has been instrumental for organizations modernizing mission-critical systems. By deepening our collaboration, we’re accelerating innovation, expanding adoption of the Data Intelligence Platform and driving measurable business value for customers worldwide.”

Dellagnelo said he sees “virtually limitless opportunities” for the two companies to innovate around generative AI, real-time analytics and advanced data governance.