DataRobot Snags Data Prepper Paxata

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Automated machine learning softer provider DataRobot yesterday announced the acquisition of Paxata, a provider of self-service data preparation and data fabrics. And it didn’t take DataRobot long to release the first new product based on the acquisition, called AI Catalog.

Thanks to a well-regarded product and more than $430 million in venture capital backing, DataRobot has emerged as one of the leaders in the nascent machine learning operations, or MLOps, space in recent years.

The Boston, Massachusetts software company bolstered its position in automated machine learning this week by acquiring Paxata, which develops a self-service data preparation tool based on Apache Spark and optimized for Hadoop. Paxata has been a player in the data prep space for years, and has competed with the likes of Trifacta and Tamr. It had raised $86 million in venture capital, and included customers like Verizon Media, Petco, and Nationwide Insurance.

Jeremy Achin, CEO and co-founder of DataRobot, says data preparation has been a long-standing challenge for AI projects. “With the addition of the AI-enabled data prep and enterprise data fabric solution from Paxata we will now give business users the industry’s most complete enterprise-class platform to automate the AI lifecycle from start to finish,” he states in a press release.

Combining the two companies will “supercharge our ability to transform data and deliver better outcomes all within one platform,” Verizon Media CIO and SVP Ben Haines said in a press release. “As current customers of both companies, we recognize the strategic value of this acquisition…”

The companies didn’t take long in integrating their respective products, as DataRobot immediately announced the availability of its new AI Catalog. According to DataRobot, the AI Catalog is make it easier to prepare data for machine learning.

Data preparation tasks routinely consume the bulk of data scientists’ time and presents a massive roadblock to the trillion of dollars in value that organizations hope to get out of AI. Prakash Nanduri, the CEO and co-Founder of Paxata, has high hopes that the combined company will overcome those roadblocks.

“No one platform served the needs of enterprises when it came to finding, prepping, consuming, and governing data and simultaneously building, deploying, and maintaining AI solutions at an enterprise scale – until today,” he said in a press release.

This was DataRobot’s fifth acquisition since 2017, and third of the year. Earlier this year, it bought ParallelM, a competing provider of MLOps solutions.

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