Fivetran, a leader in automated data movement, and dbt Labs, a pioneer in modern data transformation, have signed a definitive agreement for an all-stock merger, aiming to establish a unified open data infrastructure platform.
Under the terms of the agreement, Fivetran CEO George Fraser will lead the combined company as CEO, while dbt Labs CEO Tristan Handy will assume the role of co-founder and President. Upon the transaction’s close, the unified entity is projected to achieve nearly $600 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
The merger unites complementary strengths, creating an open data infrastructure designed to integrate data movement, transformation, metadata, and activation. This new approach seeks to offer flexibility for analytic compute and AI applications, with a commitment to maintaining dbt Core as an open-source project under its current license and fostering its development within the community.
George Fraser commented on the development, stating, “As AI reshapes every industry, organizations need a foundation they can trust — one that is open, interoperable, and built to scale with their ambitions.” He added, “Our admiration for dbt and its remarkable community runs deep — this is about bringing together the best of both worlds to accelerate innovation and create lasting impact across the data community.”
This unified open data infrastructure aims to streamline engineering complexities by automating end-to-end data management. It is designed for compatibility across various compute engines, catalogs, business intelligence tools, and AI models. Built on open standards like SQL and Iceberg, it is intended to provide flexibility, preventing vendor lock-in and enabling scalability for future workloads.
Tristan Handy emphasized dbt Labs’ long-standing commitment to openness and practitioner choice. “For nearly a decade, I’ve worked to build data infrastructure that supports every engine, every format, every model, every tool, that acts as an abstraction layer across an entire ecosystem,” Handy said. “By merging with Fivetran, we can accelerate that mission and deliver the open data infrastructure that practitioners and enterprises need in the AI era.”
Both companies’ Boards of Directors and shareholders have approved the transaction. The finalization of the merger is contingent upon customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Until these conditions are met, Fivetran and dbt Labs will continue to operate as separate and independent entities.
Fivetran specializes in automated data movement, assisting companies such as OpenAI, LVMH, Pfizer, Verizon, and Spotify in centralizing data from various sources into cloud destinations like data lakes. The company focuses on high-performance pipelines, interoperability, and enterprise-grade security to support analytics, AI, and compliance. Since its founding in 2016, dbt Labs has focused on empowering data practitioners to create and share organizational knowledge. Its dbt Fusion engine underpins AI-ready structured data, providing performance, context, and trust for scaling analytics in the AI era. Over 80,000 data teams globally, including those at Siemens, Roche, and Condé Nast, utilize dbt. Qatalyst Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to Fivetran, with Deloitte & Touche LLP as due diligence advisors and Wilson Sonsini Rosati & Goodrich P.
C. and DLA Piper LLP as legal advisors. Morgan Stanley advised dbt Labs financially, and Latham & Watkins LLP provided legal counsel.
