Databricks buys 2 startups for AI security product

Databricks has launched Lakewatch, a new security product, and bought two small startups, Antimatter and SiftD.ai, for undisclosed terms.

Lakewatch adds security information and event management functions such as threat detection and investigation to Databricks’ data platform, and uses AI agents powered by Anthropic’s Claude, according to the report.

Databricks bought Antimatter in a deal that closed last year and acquired SiftD.ai in a deal agreed over the past few weeks that closed on March 23

Antimatter, founded by security researcher Andrew Krioukov, raised around US$12 million in 2022 led by New Enterprise Associates, according to PitchBook estimates.

SiftD.ai launched its product in November, and Databricks said staff from both startups joined the company.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

This security move has been years in the making

Lakewatch builds on Databricks’ multi-year push against the high price of traditional security information and event management (SIEM) platforms, especially for large-scale log retention 1.
Since at least 2022, Databricks has pitched its platform as a cheaper way for organizations, including U.S. federal agencies, to meet expanded log retention rules while keeping tools like Splunk in place 1.
The approach moved huge data volumes into the Databricks Lakehouse (its combined data lake and data warehouse platform). That shift aimed to cut ingestion-based licensing fees and reduce infrastructure spending tied to legacy SIEM systems 1.
The SiftD.ai acquisition moves Databricks past SIEM add-ons and into a first-party SIEM product through Lakewatch 2.

This launch signals a tightening link between data and security markets

Lakewatch argues that security analytics can live inside the same stack that runs data storage and processing, rather than coming from a separate vendor 3.
Customers now face a packaging choice between one platform and the tradeoffs that come with concentrating both analytics and security in a single provider 3.
For Databricks, a security push could open a new revenue line and support its growth story ahead of a potential IPO. Any timeline or valuation impact remains uncertain 3.
The shift fits a wider consolidation trend, including Cisco’s acquisition of Splunk, as data management and security analytics increasingly overlap 3.