Getty Images/iStockphoto
Databricks buys Row Zero to aid spreadsheet governance for users, AI
The acquisition will enable users to run spreadsheets in the Databricks platform, giving data teams greater governance control over data use by humans and AI agents.
Databricks has acquired cloud-based spreadsheet startup Row Zero, a move that will let users natively run spreadsheets with built-in data governance and security capabilities in Databricks systems and the vendor's Genie agentic AI environment.
The Row Zero spreadsheet currently connects to Databricks and other data platforms, including Snowflake, Amazon Redshift and Google's BigQuery. But Databricks said integrating the software directly into its platform and Genie will give data teams more control over the spreadsheets that end users continue to stubbornly rely on for analytics applications -- and that AI agents are increasingly using, too.
Stephen Catanzano, an analyst at Informa TechTarget's Omdia research and advisory division, said spreadsheet sprawl remains a big problem for organizations that can't properly manage data after users download it into spreadsheets stored locally on their devices.
"Databricks is addressing a fundamental tension in enterprise data management: spreadsheets are ubiquitous and irreplaceable for business users, yet they represent one of the largest sources of ungoverned data in any organization," Catanzano said. "There are countless ungoverned Excel files floating around with stale data, unclear lineage and security risks."
He added that the combination of Databricks and Row Zero, which functions like Excel and Google Sheets, could close governance gaps for data leaders without forcing end users to give up familiar spreadsheet tools. In addition, it would ensure that Genie agents accessing spreadsheets -- either autonomously or at a user's request -- are acting on trusted, governed data in an auditable way, Catanzano said.
First a user, now a buyer
The terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed. Seattle-based Row Zero was founded in 2021 and emerged from stealth in early 2024. The startup, which raised $13 million in two seed funding rounds, claims to have users in more than 15,000 companies. Databricks is one. Its sales finance team began using the spreadsheet earlier this year; Databricks executives said that's what first exposed them to Row Zero. Data platforms rival AWS also uses the tool internally in various self-service analytics applications, according to a case study on Row Zero's website.
In June, Row Zero released an initial integration with Genie that enables its users to run natural language queries against data in Databricks systems. Ken Wong, senior director of product management at Databricks, told TechTarget that the company has already begun work to fully integrate the Row Zero technology into Genie and its overall platform. He said Databricks expects to introduce the native integration capabilities "in the near future," without providing a specific target date.
Databricks will also continue to offer a platform-agnostic version of Row Zero that supports other data sources and agents, Wong said. The sources that the spreadsheet connects to now also include PostgreSQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Teradata and both Amazon Athena and Amazon S3. Row Zero also integrated it for natural language querying with the Snowflake Cortex Analyst agentic AI service in June.
Wong said Databricks plans to make the platform-agnostic version "as feature-rich as possible" and to add more data sources and agents in response to customer demand. He added, though, that the native version will be "optimized to take advantage of capabilities unique to Databricks." Pricing for the integrated features isn't being disclosed now, he said. The current pricing structure for the platform-agnostic version -- free downloads to start, with paid Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers -- won't change.
Native integration vs. spreadsheet add-in tools
Databricks this month made an Excel add-in tool generally available, following a public preview it launched in April. Databricks Excel Add-in lets end users import data from the company's platform into local spreadsheets. It similarly offers a connector for importing data into Google Sheets.
Wong said Databricks will also continue to offer and develop the add-ins, which he described as complementary tools to Row Zero. Enabling users to access Databricks data and the Genie environment within Excel or Google Sheets can be valuable in some cases, he said.
"But for organizations concerned about the scalability, governance and auditability of their existing spreadsheet tools, Row Zero offers a scalable option connected to live, governed data, and one where every agent action remains fully interpretable and auditable," Wong said.
Donald Farmer, principal at consulting firm TreeHive Strategy, said add-in tools like those offered by Databricks are convenient for spreadsheet users, but they're governed "only up to the data import." As a result, they can perpetuate the problem of ungoverned data being used in large numbers of spreadsheets, as both Farmer and Catanzano noted.
By contrast, Databricks said Row Zero will run on top of a governance foundation built on its Genie Ontology, Unity Catalog and Unity Gateway technologies. They, respectively, provide an automated context layer for end users and AI agents, a unified catalog for governing data, and an AI governance environment for managing Genie Agents -- or coworkers, as Databricks calls them.
Catanzano said the governed workflows Databricks plans to enable through the native integration of Row Zero and Genie are capabilities that other data platform vendors don't currently offer. "Overall, I like how they find seemingly smaller issues and solve the data and governance challenges that exist," he said, calling the Row Zero acquisition another example.
Farmer agreed that integrating Row Zero will put Databricks ahead of archrival Snowflake in this area. He said Snowflake currently relies on a partnership with analytics vendor Sigma Computing, which offers a spreadsheet-like interface.
Craig Stedman is a senior reporter on TechTarget's Data Technologies news team, covering analytics, data management and data backup topics. He has more than 40 years of experience as an enterprise IT writer and editor.
