Advancing Analytics, a European data and AI consultancy that helps organisations turn complex data and AI challenges into measurable outcomes, has secured a growth investment from Databricks Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Databricks. Launched in 2023, the fund typically backs companies building on and around the Databricks platform. The transaction makes Advancing Analytics the first UK-headquartered consulting firm to receive investment from Databricks Ventures. Tercera, a Chicago-based growth investor founded in 2020 by former Appirio CEO Chris Barbin and specialising in IT services companies, is participating in the round alongside Databricks Ventures.

Advancing Analytics holds Gold Status on the Databricks Brickbuilder Partner Network — the programme for Databricks' consulting and services partners — with 6 Brickbuilder Specialisations, a designation held by only a handful of consultancies globally. The firm works to accelerate the adoption of Data Intelligence and Agentic AI for some of the world's biggest organisations, including Aon, Unilever, Hiscox, Sega, WPP, ASOS, Hershey's, FIS, and the UK Government.

Founded in 2018, Advancing Analytics has built its business around helping organisations design, modernise and operate enterprise data and AI platforms using Databricks. The firm pairs deep technical expertise with an extensive track record across regulated and data-intensive industries, and its differentiated intellectual property creates a unique advantage — helping clients accelerate innovation, scale more rapidly, and reduce operational risk.

"Advancing Analytics has built a reputation for turning ambitious data and AI strategies into systems that deliver value for clients," said Kori O'Brien, SVP of Partnerships at Databricks. "Deepening our investment in this partnership means more customers can move from data complexity to real data intelligence, faster, and with confidence."

The investment deepens an already close partnership. Advancing Analytics will expand its engagement with Databricks across engineering and go-to-market initiatives, focusing on core Databricks products including Genie, Databricks' AI coworker, and Lakebase, its Postgres database built for AI apps and agents. The two companies will also collaborate more closely to help customers leverage Unity Catalog and Lakehouse capabilities, building on Advancing Analytics' own LakeForge accelerator portfolio — including LakeForge Agents, which productionises data pipelines and reduces time to value by 12x.

"Databricks Ventures' investment is a significant vote of confidence in the platform, the frameworks and the people we've spent years building," said Terry McCann, CEO of Advancing Analytics. "Combined with our recent investment from Lead Edge Capital, this gives us the resources to go even deeper on Databricks' platform and to keep solving the hard, unglamorous problems that stand between our clients and real AI outcomes."

The investment lands at a pivotal moment for data estate modernisation. Companies across financial services, insurance and consumer industries are migrating away from legacy data warehouses toward unified platforms such as the Databricks Data + AI Platform — the lakehouse architecture popularised by the San Francisco company, which was founded by the original creators of Apache Spark — to support their advanced analytics and AI ambitions. Databricks' latest annual State of Data + AI report found an 11x year-on-year increase in AI model deployments, with roughly 70% of companies now exploring generative AI use cases. That shift has created demand for partners able to turn ambitious data and AI strategy into working systems — precisely the gap Advancing Analytics has built its business around closing.

The new funding follows a recent strategic investment from Lead Edge Capital, a global growth equity firm. The combined capital will support Advancing Analytics' continued development of its proprietary frameworks and AI capabilities, its specialist talent, and its international growth as demand for the adoption of modern data platforms and AI maturity continues to accelerate.