Databricks, the Data and AI company, today announced it has experienced over 70% year-over-year growth for its ANZ business over the last fiscal year, driven by a surge in demand for data and AI capabilities among Australian enterprises.

Globally, Databricks reached over US$1.6 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ending January 31, representing over 50% year-over-year growth, driven by rapid product innovation. Databricks also completed a series of acquisitions in its most recent fiscal year, including the purchases of MosaicML, Arcion, Okera, Einblick, and Rubicon.

These acquisitions, as well as Databricks’ recently-announced investment and Series A funding of Mistral AI, have positioned the company as the platform to help enterprises take advantage of generative AI – securely and with their own proprietary data.

This past fiscal year, Databricks also experienced significant growth in new ANZ customers, including Seven West Media, Colonial First State, and the National Rugby League, and has also more than doubled its partners in the ANZ region.

“In my first year with Databricks, I’ve had the pleasure to work with such a strong ecosystem of customers and partners in ANZ,” said Adam Beavis, Vice President and Country Manager for Databricks in ANZ. ”Data and AI are key enablers for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competition, and it’s incredibly exciting to work with data-forward and innovative companies across the region. I’ve also been blown away by the speed of innovation from our product teams, and the diligent work of our team here on the ground in Australia and New Zealand,” Beavis added.

“Our goal is to fuel our business with data at speed and at scale in a highly secure way. Databricks is a strategic enabler of our data strategy, helping to drive standardisation and efficiencies in providing data in a reliable way. It allows our banking experts to focus on the things that make a difference to our customers, knowing they have all the information they need to drive high-quality relationships and a truly great experience,” said Joanna Gurry, Executive, Data Platforms, NAB.

“We’re seeing a high level of demand from clients across Australia and New Zealand to leverage Databricks’ platform to unlock the value from artificial intelligence and machine learning use cases,” said James Hayes, Mantel Group Data Partner. “As Databricks’ Regional Partner of the Year we have an incredible working relationship which is getting stronger as we work together to deliver real impact and value to more organisations.”

To continue bringing together a community of AI leaders, Databricks has launched a series of Data Intelligence days across ANZ. Last week, data and AI leaders and Databricks customers including The Reece Group, Sportsbet, and Future Fund gathered in Melbourne to share their data and AI transformation stories. Databricks kicked off the ANZ event roadshow in Perth on March 14 with data-forward enterprises South32, Synergy, Roy Hill, and Catholic Education Western Australia, which shared best practices and learnings with attendees.

Upcoming Data Intelligence Days in Australia & New Zealand:

• Auckland Data Intelligence Day – 9 May
• Brisbane Data Intelligence Day – 14 May

Databricks also recognised and celebrated outstanding data and AI teams and individuals at its inaugural Databricks ANZ Data + AI Awards 2024. Congratulations to all winners:

• GenAI Innovation Award celebrates the data and research team using generative AI to transform their products, processes, and tools — delivering innovation across industries.

Winner: NAB

With a commitment to empowering its frontline employees, NAB has collaborated with Databricks to pioneer a Gen AI-driven solution aimed at enhancing the customer experience. Leveraging a series of Databricks features and a Large Language Model, this early pilot of the Personal Banker Assistant focuses on the efficiency of providing excellent service experiences for NAB’s customers.

• Data + AI Visionary Award celebrates the forward-thinking data team that is transforming their organisation by turning data and AI innovations into business outcomes that inspire their industry.

Winner: Seven West Media

A media industry leader in the use of AI, Seven West Media uses AI-driven personalisation at the individual user level to deliver enhanced content recommendations and a dynamic user experience to its 7plus streaming audiences. Leveraging the data generated by its more than 13.7m viewers, Seven can now predict audience viewing habits up to a month in advance, which gives advertisers the most accurate possible picture of not only ad inventory but also audience composition by age and gender, helping marketers make insightful decisions on their 7plus campaigns.

• Data + AI Transformation Award celebrates the data team that is delivering new use cases, innovative outcomes, and increased value while democratising access to data and insights.

Winner: Sportsbet

Sportsbet has truly transformed its data and AI operations, moving from a first-generation cloud environment to a flexible, scalable cloud-native lakehouse solution over the past two years. The innovative Sportsbet solution provides both customer and business impact with 20+ machine learning-driven applications including the world’s first real-time intervention for safer gambling. Sportsbet is seeing phenomenal results, speeding up delivery times by 60% and increasing productivity by 30%, which is in line with its approach to technology being customer-led, insights-driven, fast, and connected. Databricks’ scalable platform is critical for an agile digital business with huge spikes in activity around major events, like the Melbourne Cup.

• Data + AI Democratisation Award celebrates the data team that is driving the centre of excellence, delivering data into the hands of empowered users across the organisation — making every team a data team.

Winner: Atlassian

Atlassian’s previous system was complex, slow and expensive, and prohibited business users from accessing data without the help of the small data team. Since moving to Databricks intelligence Platform, 70% of business users can now access Databricks autonomously for analytics and insights. This has accelerated time-to-market and also seen a reduction in infrastructure costs.

• Data + AI for Good Award celebrates the data team that is making a positive impact in the world by using data and AI to deliver solutions to global challenges.

Winner: Mable

Mable have built a platform that leverages data and AI throughout to enable people looking for disability or aged care support to connect with local independent support workers.