Databricks bought two startups to underpin its new AI security product

Databricks is expanding beyond its core data analytics business with the launch of Lakewatch, a new AI-native security product. The tool leverages the company's existing data lake infrastructure to perform Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) functions—such as threat detection and investigation—but supercharges them with AI agents powered by Anthropic's Claude. This strategic move is underpinned by two recent, previously undisclosed startup acquisitions: Antimatter and SiftD.ai.

Antimatter, a startup founded by security researcher Andrew Krioukov, was acquired last year. The company, which had raised $12 million, was developing a 'data control plane' designed to let enterprises deploy AI agents securely while protecting sensitive data. Krioukov, who has been at Databricks for months, now leads the Lakewatch team. The second acquisition, SiftD.ai, closed just this Monday. The tiny startup, co-founded by former Splunk chief scientist Steve Zhang, had only launched its product in November—an interactive notebook environment for human-AI collaboration, making this largely an acqui-hire. Databricks confirmed employees from both startups have joined the company, signaling a focused build-out of its new security division.