Databricks Acquires Einblick: Team Behind Innovative Natural Language Data Notebook Joins Forces

Databricks, a leading data lakehouse provider, continues its aggressive expansion by acquiring the team behind Einblick, a company known for its natural language data science notebooks. This innovative tool allows enterprise users to tackle data problems with just one sentence.

This acquisition marks Databricks' fourth major purchase in the past year, following its acquisition of data replicator Arcion for $100 million, the $1.3 billion purchase of Mosaic ML, and the acquisition of data governance platform Okera, which was undisclosed in terms of price.

The financial details of the Einblick acquisition have not been disclosed, but the move underscores Databricks' strategy to enhance its offerings as a comprehensive solution for enterprise data storage and analysis, while also positioning itself against competitor Snowflake, which is also actively acquiring new technologies.

In a company blog post, Databricks executives Ali Ghodsi, Ted Tomlinson, Patrick Wendell, Prem Prakash, and Cassie Miao stated, “The Einblick team has pioneered state-of-the-art techniques for translating natural language questions into the code, charts, and models needed to generate insights. This requires applying advanced generative modeling capabilities optimized for data-related queries.”

What Einblick Is and Offers

Founded in 2019 by researchers from MIT and Brown University, Einblick has developed an AI-native platform that transforms complex data questions into straightforward natural language queries. This platform integrates AI directly into the user interface, simplifying the conversion of ideas into actionable data workflows.

Users can engage with Einblick’s AI assistant, Einblick Prompt, by asking questions or giving instructions—like “plot a heat map of log ratings count vs. log views count.” The system intelligently processes these requests to utilize relevant enterprise data effectively.

Einblick boasts a sophisticated architecture that enhances raw user input with contextual information, translating it into actionable insights through SQL, Python, and more advanced logical operators. Users can connect their data from multiple sources, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and even Snowflake, allowing the Einblick Prompt engine to access this information seamlessly.

Additionally, Einblick provides a free tool called ChartGen AI, allowing users to upload CSV, Excel, or JSON files and generate charts simply by describing their intent.

Why Databricks Acquired Einblick

Databricks sees significant potential in Einblick’s technology, aiming to integrate it into its Data Intelligence Platform, which was bolstered by the recent acquisition of MosaicML. The objective is not only to understand general language but also to navigate the specific jargon and nuances that vary by company.

Einblick’s founder and CEO Emanuel Zgraggen emphasized in a blog post, “When we founded Einblick, our goal was to empower companies to do more with data by creating the easiest and most collaborative data platform.” This vision aligns perfectly with Databricks' mission to simplify access to data and AI for users of all skill levels.

Notably, Fortune’s Term Sheet blog highlighted a personal connection between the two companies, as Databricks' CEO Ali Ghodsi and Einblick co-founder Tim Kraska attended Berkeley together.