The long-anticipated merger between Fivetran and dbt Labs has finally been confirmed, marking a defining moment for the future of enterprise data infrastructure. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the two companies are joining forces in an all-stock deal that creates a combined powerhouse generating nearly $600 million in annual revenue.
Both firms have been central to how modern organizations move, transform, and prepare data for analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). With this merger, they’re setting out to build a single open, interoperable platform designed for the AI-driven enterprise era.
According to details shared with Reuters, Fivetran CEO George Fraser will lead the newly formed company as chief executive, while dbt Labs’ Tristan Handy will become co-founder and president. The merger structure is an all-stock exchange, with ratios determined by each company’s growth and revenue performance. Fraser confirmed that the joint valuation exceeds their previous private rounds, though the true market value will depend on future performance.
At their last funding rounds, Fivetran was valued at $5.6 billion (September 2021) and dbt Labs at $4.2 billion (February 2022). Both companies count Andreessen Horowitz among their biggest investors, reinforcing a16z’s expanding footprint in the data and AI infrastructure ecosystem. The deal, first hinted at by industry insiders last month, highlights how consolidation is reshaping the data tooling landscape amid growing enterprise demand for AI-ready data systems.
Fraser called it “a refounding moment” not just for Fivetran, but for the entire data ecosystem. He emphasized that as artificial intelligence transforms every industry, companies need a data foundation that’s “open, interoperable, and built to scale with their ambitions.” The collaboration, he added, brings together two complementary forces that have long shared a mission to make data more accessible and reliable for all.
The partnership feels almost inevitable. Fivetran, headquartered in Oakland, California, specializes in automated data movement—connecting hundreds of data sources into unified warehouses. dbt Labs, based in Philadelphia, became a global name with dbt (data build tool), its open-source framework for transforming and modeling data. Fraser estimates that between 80% and 90% of Fivetran customers already use dbt tools in their workflows.
By merging, the two companies are effectively removing one of the biggest barriers in the data pipeline: fragmentation. The new entity will combine data integration, transformation, and analytics into one end-to-end platform. Fraser explained that the joint mission will revolve around openness and interoperability—two values that are becoming essential as businesses race to make sense of their data in an AI-first world.
Importantly, dbt Core, the open-source version of dbt Labs’ platform, will remain freely available under its current license. Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the open-source community, describing it as “the heart of everything we build.” This decision signals that the merger isn’t just about scale—it’s also about preserving the open data principles that helped both companies succeed.
While Fraser didn’t provide an exact timeline for an IPO, he noted that the combined company’s size and recurring revenue put it in a strong position for a future public listing. For now, the focus remains on integration and accelerating innovation across the AI data stack.
The Fivetran and dbt Labs merger is more than a financial transaction—it’s a strategic move to reshape how data infrastructure works in the age of machine learning. As organizations invest heavily in AI, the need for clean, well-structured, and easily integrated data has never been more urgent. With the deal expected to close within the next year, the new company is positioning itself to become the default backbone for enterprise data systems worldwide.
If the partnership delivers on its vision, it could define the next decade of enterprise analytics—one where data is no longer siloed but seamlessly orchestrated from source to insight.
