Snowflake Gets $479 Million in Funding, Salesforce Partnership
Funding pushes cloud data start-up’s valuation to $12.4 billion as it prepares to go public
Cloud-based data platform vendor Snowflake is raising another $479 million in a Series G funding round, driving its valuation to $12.4 billion and giving it significant leverage as it eyes going public later this year.
The Lowdown: The latest round, announced this week, is being led by new investors Salesforce Ventures and Dragoneer Investment Group.
The Details: Investors continue to pour money into the 8-year-old company based in San Mateo, California. In its previous funding round, Snowflake raised $450 million, which the company has yet to spend. In an interview with CNBC, CEO Frank Slootman said the latest investment round was less about raising money and more about establishing a strategic partnership with Salesforce, a major enterprise cloud player.
With the latest $479 million, Snowflake becomes one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable start-ups as its valuation jumps from $3.95 billion to $12.4 billion. The company offers a data platform that runs in the public cloud and delivers data warehousing, data lakes, data application development, data analytics, and data sharing to enterprises and that, because it’s built for the cloud, has no scalability, flexibility, or performance limits. Snowflake customers include CapitalOne, Sony, Adobe, DoorDash, EA, and Logitech.
The platform is available on the world’s three largest public cloud providers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud – which together account for almost 70% of the global market, according to Synergy Research Group.
The analyst firm puts Salesforce in the second tier, along with the likes of IBM and Oracle Cloud. The new partnership with Salesforce will expand Snowflake’s position as a leading cloud data platform provider, according to company officials.
The Impact: During the CNBC interview, Slootman said the cloud is the most significant transition ever in the tech industry, with almost every company migrating more of their business to the cloud. He also noted the continued consolidation of the cloud around AWS, Azure, and Google, making Snowflake’s presence in all three critical.
The company is still on target for an IPO later this year, most likely before the presidential election in November, the CEO said.
The Buzz: “Snowflake’s rapid growth and ability to unlock real value for customers have been impressive,” said Marc Stad, founder and managing partner of Dragoneer. “We are confident Snowflake’s innovative and evolving technology and its customer-first approach will continue to drive sustainable momentum over the long term.”
“We look forward to Dragoneer’s experience and insights as we continue to serve our customers and grow our business,” Slootman said. “We also welcome our partnership with Salesforce and look forward to the positive impact our technologies and services will deliver to our customers and the broader market.”
Related Links:
CNBC: Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman on Company’s $479 Million in New Funding
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