Databricks acquires two startups to power new AI security tool

On Tuesday, Databricks announced the launch of Lakewatch, a new security product that performs classic Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)—tools used for detecting and investigating threats. The product performs these tasks with the help of artificial intelligence agents powered by Anthropic’s Claude. To support the new platform, Databricks confirmed it has acquired two startups: Antimatter and SiftD.ai. The deal for Antimatter closed last year, while the transaction for SiftD.ai closed on Monday.

The acquisitions follow a major capital expansion for Databricks, which closed a $5 billion funding round last month. While the financial terms of the two startup acquisitions were not disclosed, the transactions involve the following details:

• Databricks funding: Closed a $5 billion raise last month.
• Antimatter funding: Raised an estimated $12 million in 2022 in a round led by New Enterprise Associates, according to PitchBook estimates.
• SiftD.ai funding: PitchBook was not aware of any funds raised by the startup.
• Antimatter headcount: Had less than 50 employees before the acquisition.
• SiftD.ai headcount: Consisted of only a few people, making the transaction an acqui-hire, which is an acquisition primarily for talent.

Databricks probably gained intellectual property from the Antimatter acquisition. Antimatter was developing a data control plane, which is a tool for deploying agents securely while protecting sensitive data. Andrew Krioukov, the founder of Antimatter who demonstrated the startup’s technology onstage in 2024 at RSA’s Innovation Sandbox Contest, is now leading the Lakewatch team at Databricks.

SiftD.ai, which launched its product in November, developed an interactive notebook designed as a tool where people and agents work together. SiftD.ai co-founder CEO Steve Zhang previously served as chief scientist at Splunk through 2021, where he created the Search Processing Language. Zhang later left Astronomer—a company associated with the Coldplay CEO scandal—in 2023 before founding SiftD.ai.

While Databricks declined to say exactly how many employees it acquired, it confirmed that the startups’ employees did join the company. A spokesperson for Databricks essentially indicated that the company remains active in looking for new acquisitions. “We’re always looking to what’s next — our goal is to stay ahead of the market and close gaps in what our customers need,” the spokesperson said.

Why it matters

Databricks is using its capital to build out its security stack, signaling a shift toward integrated AI-native security tools rather than just data storage.