Databricks buys Row Zero to put governed spreadsheets inside Genie
The startup’s spreadsheet works on live, permissioned data at billions of rows. Databricks wants business teams and AI agents using it instead of exported files
- Deal announced: 24 September 2026; price not disclosed
- Genie integration covers web, desktop and mobile apps, governed through Unity Catalog, Unity Gateway and Genie Ontology
- Row Zero will be offered to all Databricks customers on every major cloud and will keep supporting data sources outside Databricks
- Databricks says more than 20,000 organizations use its platform
For data leaders already on Databricks, this is worth waiting for rather than acting on: there is no integration date yet, and replacing Excel habits is a change program, not a license decision. Start now by finding which exported workbooks feed real decisions, since those are the ones a governed grid would need to replace. Organizations that keep their data on another platform should expect Databricks to pitch this to their finance teams, and should ask how it handles data outside the lakehouse.
“Joining Databricks accelerates our vision of giving business users the spreadsheet they deserve: secure, connected, scalable, and deeply integrated with AI agents.”Breck Fresen, founder and CEO, Row Zero
Databricks said on 24 September that it has acquired Row Zero, a spreadsheet that connects directly to live data sources and, Databricks says, lets business users work with billions of rows at interactive speed. Terms were not disclosed.
Row Zero will be built into Genie, which Databricks sells as an AI coworker for business teams. Users will be able to move from asking Genie a question in chat to pivoting and modeling the answer in a grid that keeps the formulas, pivots and keyboard shortcuts of Excel and Google Sheets.
The pitch is governance. Queries run under each user’s own permissions, data refreshes from the source, exports can be locked down and results can be written back, with every action logged. Databricks argues that every export into an ungoverned spreadsheet file, which it calls a ‘spreadmart’, adds to what may be the largest set of ungoverned data pipelines in the enterprise, and that the risk grows once AI agents work on the same data.
Row Zero was founded by former Amazon Web Services and Tableau engineers, and the team is joining Databricks. The company gave no date for the Genie integration.
Sources
- Databricks, “Databricks Acquires Row Zero, Bringing Live, Governed Spreadsheets to Genie”, press release, 24 September 2026. https://www.databricks.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/databricks-acquires-row-zero-bringing-live-governed-spreadsheets
