Databricks, a data and AI company, recently announced its investment in Catalyst, a software that aggregates customer data and provides businesses with insights into customer maturity, health and upsell potential. The venture capital arm of Databricks, Databricks Ventures, injected an undisclosed amount into the New York-based Catalyst, marking its first investment within the customer intelligence sector.
This investment will further the integration of Catalyst and Databricks’ lakehouse, while allowing their shared customer base to better access customer data. By utilizing the integration, customers will be able to save time when utilizing AI and data stack players such as dbt Labs, Matilion, and Alation.
Founder and CEO of Catalyst, Edward Chiu, showcased how the company works, highlighting Catalyst’s capability of organizing customer data from sources like Salesforce, BigQuery and Mixpanel, and subsequently using Databricks’ AI engine to analyze the data. This will give sales and success teams a clearer view into customer activities, such as the likelihood of upsell potential and risk of customer attrition.
The funding will also see the introduction of a new feature named ‘ExpansionSignal’ that can detect signals that a customer is about to spend more money. Other competitors in this space, such as Gainsight and Totango, are inadequate in comparison, as Catalyst can reportedly implement customers at a projected speed of weeks as opposed to months.
Catalyst has raised a total of $65 million in funding and was given a valuation of $245 million at its last investment round. The company is hoping to capitalize on its initiative with Databricks, giving users the opportunity to gain insights from customer data via an efficient platform.
