Dbt Labs, one of Philadelphia’s most notable recent tech unicorns, is merging with California’s Fivetran, the companies today announced.
The merger between the Philly data analytics firm and the West Coast data movement company is an all-stock deal, so no cash will change hands, just shares. Dbt Labs shareholders will own a minority stake in the combined company, CEO Tristan Handy told Technical.ly.
Once the deal is finalized, Fivetran’s George Fraser will remain CEO and Handy will serve as cofounder and president, according to Reuters.
The companies haven’t begun the process of integrating with each other yet, per Handy, so it is still unclear how the merger will impact the company’s presence in Philly and if there will be layoffs or staff changes.
“If you use and love either [company] today, this merger will be non-disruptive.”
Tristan Handy, dbt labs
“The teams from both companies are critical to the success of the combined company, and we will proceed thoughtfully with all talent decisions,” Handy said.
Going forward, the combined company will be working towards strong open data infrastructure that is “pluggable, relies on integration via standards, does not assume the usage of any one particular compute engine, and does not assume that solutions will be duct taped together from many individual products and vendors,” he added.
The open-source tool called dbt Core, which orgs can use to transform data, will remain open after the merger, according to a press release.
“If you use and love either [company] today, this merger will be non-disruptive,” Handy said in a blog post. He noted that Fivetran was one of his startup’s “best partners” in its early days.
The companies had a long-term partnership via product integration, according to Fivetran senior PR manager Matias Cavallin, who said over 1,500 organizations already use both platforms.
The combined company presents opportunities for expansion both globally and across industries, he said.
“Growth will come from strengthening our role as the backbone of open data infrastructure: automating pipelines, supporting open standards like SQL and Iceberg, and ensuring enterprises can activate their data with speed, trust, and flexibility,” Cavallin told Technical.ly. “Over time, that foundation positions us strongly to pursue a public listing when the timing is right.”
From Fishtown consultancy to a16z-backed powerhouse
Founded in 2016 as Fishtown Analytics, dbt Labs is notable for its growth during the pandemic, reaching unicorn status in 2021. It’s currently valued at more than $4 billion.
Dbt Labs’ growth and fundraising success follows the trend of free-flowing venture capital during the pandemic, when Philly saw its best quarters for VC in the last decade. It started finding momentum in 2020, with a $12.9 million Series A funding round, which it followed with a $29.5 million Series B later that same year.
The company’s valuation first exceeded $1 billion after its $150 million Series C in 2021 and it reached a $4.2 billion valuation after raising a whopping $222 million Series D in 2022.
Reality caught up in 2023, when dbt Labs announced it was laying off 15% of its workforce. Dbt Labs had signed an agreement to acquire startup Transform earlier that year. At the beginning of 2025, Dbt Labs did acquire Seattle-based software startup SDF Labs.
Both dbt Labs and Fivetran are reported to have received investment from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The combined company will have $600 million in annual recurring revenue and more than 10,000 customers, according to Hardy’s blog post.
