Databricks Will Invest $3B in EMEA and Grow Its Team About 50%
Databricks will grow its EMEA team of more than 2,000 by about 50% and run R&D hubs in four cities. Free Edition drew more than 80,000 EMEA sign-ups in the past year.
TL;DR
- Databricks plans to invest about $3 billion across Europe and the Middle East over three years, growing its EMEA team about 50%.
- The release reads like Databricks' account playbook applied to a region, with engineers, partners, a free tier and a training goal.
- Databricks hasn't split the 50% between sellers and engineers. Its published target is training 500,000 people by 2030.
Databricks said on November 11 it will invest about $3 billion across Europe and the Middle East over the next three years. The company calls it its largest regional investment outside North America. The plan includes growing its EMEA team, now more than 2,000 people, by about 50%. That would take the team to about 3,000.
The rest of the release suggests Databricks is growing the region the way it grows an account. Engineers work near the customer, a free product and training fill the top of the funnel, and partners extend its reach.
The release lists engineers, partners and a free tier
Beside the headcount, Databricks lists five other parts of the push:
- Four new offices in the past year, in Amsterdam, Milan, Zurich and Frankfurt.
- R&D hubs in Amsterdam, Berlin, Belgrade and Aarhus.
- More than 80,000 EMEA sign-ups for its Free Edition in the past year, and a goal of training about 500,000 people by 2030.
- Certifications across its partner network up 70% year over year.
- Three startup investments in six months: Tsuga, Advancing Analytics and Applied Computing.
Richard Shaw, who leads field engineering for the UK and Ireland at Databricks, told AI Magazine that EMEA is a growing part of revenue. Shaw named Accenture, Deloitte and Microsoft as key partners and pointed to finance teams as an entry point for the Genie agent: "So CFOs across the board are landing with Genie."
Databricks said in August its revenue run-rate passed $7 billion, up more than 80% year over year. More than 1,000 customers were consuming at over $1 million a year. On a meter with no seats, revenue grows when existing customers run more workloads. That likely takes engineers and trained users inside each account as much as new logos.
The 50% counts R&D engineers alongside customer teams
The release groups R&D engineers, AI experts and customer teams in the 50% and doesn't say how many of the new hires sell. Databricks said on November 10 it plans to invest more than $500 million in the Netherlands over three years. The plan expands Amsterdam, its largest European R&D hub, where it plans to double the local team. It also covers a new office there and a goal of training more than 40,000 people by 2030.
The UK plan from March, worth more than $850 million, expects the UK and Ireland team of over 500 to pass 1,000. Neither release says whether that money sits inside the $3 billion.
On the sales side, we covered Databricks holding its SDR team flat as AI outbound response reached 6% to 10%. The offices, the Free Edition sign-ups and the partner certifications still face the customer.
Databricks published a training target and no seller count
The release names adidas, Danone, Heineken and Mercedes-Benz among its customers. A vendor competing for data budgets at those companies faces a rival that grows through partners and trained users as well as account teams. The one number Databricks committed to in the release is 500,000 people trained by 2030.
So CFOs across the board are landing with Genie.
Databricks set one dated target in the plan: 500,000 people trained by 2030. It hasn't said how many of the new EMEA hires will sell.
