Databricks has acquired Row Zero, an early-stage cloud spreadsheet startup known for its ability to handle over one million live spreadsheet rows. The acquisition was inspired by Databricks’ own finance team, who had adopted Row Zero for its scalability and ease of use. Databricks plans to integrate Row Zero with its AI agent Genie, allowing users to interact with secure data stored in Databricks through familiar spreadsheet interfaces, enhanced by natural language queries to analyze complex business metrics like profit margins and sales prospects.

The integration aims to provide businesses with a secure and scalable spreadsheet solution that bridges traditional business intelligence and advanced AI capabilities. By enabling data manipulation within a spreadsheet format, Databricks wants to eliminate the risks associated with sharing unsecured spreadsheets externally. This approach makes data analysis more accessible to business analysts who are comfortable with spreadsheets, while maintaining enterprise-grade security and control over data.

Row Zero was founded by former engineers from AWS and Tableau and had raised $10 million by May 2025, with its valuation estimated at $40 million. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. This purchase is part of Databricks’ aggressive expansion strategy in 2026, having recently closed a $5 billion funding round that pushed its annualized revenue run rate to $7 billion, fueling further startup acquisitions.

Earlier this year, Databricks acquired multiple startups, including Quotient AI for AI agent training, SiftD.ai for interactive notebooks, Panther for AI security operations, and Electric, a maker of a lightweight Postgres database. CEO Ali Ghodsi emphasized that the company plans to continue acquiring startups to enhance its AI and data analytics ecosystem, signaling an ongoing shopping spree to strengthen its position in the enterprise AI market.