Monte Carlo Named 2025 Databricks Data Governance Partner of the Year
The award was presented at the annual Databricks Data + AI Summit 2025, celebrating partners who have demonstrated excellence in extending and enhancing the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform capabilities while delivering exceptional customer outcomes.
'We're honored to be recognized as Databricks' Data Governance Partner of the Year,' said Barr Moses, CEO and co-founder of Monte Carlo. 'This recognition underscores our joint commitment to helping enterprises establish trust at every layer of the data and AI stack—from raw ingestion to model outputs. For today's data leaders, delivering trusted, reliable AI starts with strong data foundations. That's why we've made deep integration and partnership with platforms like Databricks a strategic priority—to empower our customers with end-to-end data + AI observability and accelerate time to value.'
Monte Carlo's deep integration with Databricks provides joint customers like American Airlines, NASDAQ, the Texas Rangers, and many others with complete visibility across their data and AI stacks, helping teams quickly detect, resolve, and prevent data quality and AI reliability issues before they impact the business. The partnership delivers comprehensive coverage for the entire Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, including Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Databricks AI/BI, and more.
"We are thrilled to award Monte Carlo the 2025 Databricks Data Governance Partner of the Year," said Roger Murff, VP of Technology Partners at Databricks. "Impactful AI applications start with good data. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Monte Carlo to help enterprises build reliable data foundations that deliver trusted AI applications.'.'
Attending Databricks Data + AI Summit June 9-12? Visit Monte Carlo's booth #F602 or check out our other events at the conference: info.montecarlodata.com/events/databricks-summit-2025
Learn how Monte Carlo and Databricks customers deliver end-to-end data + AI observability across Databricks' Data Intelligence Platform: www.montecarlodata.com/customers/partners-databricks
Monte Carlo created the data + AI observability category to help enterprises drive mission critical business initiatives with trusted data + AI. NASDAQ, Honeywell, Roche, and hundreds of other data teams rely on Monte Carlo to detect and resolve data + AI issues at scale. Named a 'New Relic for data' by Forbes, Monte Carlo is rated the #1 data + AI observability solution by G2 Crowd, Gartner Peer Reviews, GigaOm, ISG, and others.
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Business Insider
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- Business Insider
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Business Insider
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- Business Insider
Meet 16 VC firms investing in innovative creator economy startups like Substack, Whatnot, and Agentio
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Craft has backed marketplace model businesses like live-shopping platform Palmstreet Investors: Bryan Rosenblatt, partner; Sean Whitney, principal; Jeff Fluhr, venture partner Craft specializes in business-to-business technology investing, and comprises a team of former founders. As an early Figma team member, for instance, Whitney is interested in design tools that empower creatives, and invested in Cartwheel to redefine how 3D animation is produced. Fluhr, the cofounder of StubHub, is keen on marketplace model businesses, he said, and wants to seize on how social media is changing shopping habits. Both peer-to-peer clothing rental app Pickle and live plant shopping platform Palmstreet caught his eye because they showed growing transaction volumes, loyal customers, community, and social buzz. Fund size: Craft has over $3.3 billion in assets under management and "invests across early-stage venture and growth stage companies," the firm said. "Our two latest funds are our fourth venture fund, $712 million, and our second growth fund, $608 million." Creator Ventures is a consumer-focused fund that's 'mega bullish' on creative tools Investors: Sasha Kaletsky, managing partner; Caspar Lee, general partner Kaletsky cofounded Creator Ventures in 2022 with Lee, a longtime YouTuber and entrepreneur. The two have been investing in startups together since 2019, while Kaletsky worked in private equity. The firm announced its most recent fund, Fund II, in April. "We do consumer internet," Kaletsky said, listing apps, marketplaces, AI, and business-to-business (B2B) software that relates to the consumer. "When we think about the creator economy, usually that's in our consumer adjacent B2B, or you can call it prosumer, bucket," he said. Kaletsky said the firm is "mega bullish" on creative tools right now. FirstMark is a New York-based firm and early investor in platforms like Pinterest and Discord Investors: Derek Chu, principal; Rick Heitzmann, cofounder and partner; Kathryn Weinmann, principal Heitzmann cofounded FirstMark Capital in 2008 and has backed major social media platforms, including Pinterest and Discord, that have shaped the creator economy. The consumer-focused firm is based in New York. Chu joined FirstMark in 2023 and previously worked at Airbnb and Menlo Ventures. He led FirstMark's investment in peer-to-peer rental platform Pickle and Posh, an events platform. "We're really looking for marketplaces and AI products that empower creators," Chu said. Weinmann joined FirstMark in 2024 and was previously at Norwest Venture Partners. Fund size: $3.5 billion assets under management, according to the firm. FirstMark announced a $1.1 billion fund in 2022. Investors: Haley Bryant, principal; Shiyan Koh, cofounder and general partner Hustle Fund was founded in 2017 by Koh, Eric Bahn, and Elizabeth Yin. Koh looks for tools that help creators enhance their relationships with their audiences, make content, and use first-party data. Bryant, who joined the firm in 2022, previously was the COO of Animalz, a content marketing agency. Bryant said she's "excited about products serving a specific wedge of creators, or focused on a market that's growing as a result of the rise of the creator economy." Hustle Fund primarily invests in pre-seed startups. Fund size: $46 million (Fund III), according to the company. Recent investments: Paris-based firm Intuition thinks anyone can be a creator Investor: Hugo Amsellem, cofounder Amsellem, an investor based in Paris, cofounded Intuition, a consumer-focused VC firm, in 2024. Prior to launching the fund, he was an angel investor in several creator economy startups and previously worked at Jellysmack, a creator economy startup. "The frontier between a consumer and a creator is now becoming very blurry," Amsellem said. "Right now, when you're building for consumers, you are building for people that are creating — some are creating at scale, some are not creating at scale — but anyone is actually a creator." Intuition writes $150,000 checks into pre-seed startups, per the firm's website. Menlo Ventures' Amy Wu Martin is backing startups that help creators build and monetize their audiences Investor: Amy Wu Martin, partner Martin leads Menlo's consumer technology and gaming investments. She focuses particularly on founders building emerging technology across AI, blockchain, and augmented reality. Before joining Menlo in 2023, she was a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and a founding partner at FTX Ventures. When it comes to the creator economy, Martin has led Menlo's investments in categories like gaming and commerce, such as ShopMy. She has also led Menlo's investment in several consumer and creator-related AI companies, including Alta, an AI-powered virtual try-on startup; Flora, a creative tools platform; and Higgsfield, a video AI startup. Fund size: $7 billion assets under management, according to the firm. In 2024, Menlo launched its $100 million Anthology Fund in partnership with Anthropic. Night's background in talent management helps it spot opportunities in media and entertainment Investors: Ezra Cooperstein, general partner; Reed Duchscher, general partner; Ben Mathews, general partner Night is a talent management firm with a venture studio that invests in and incubates startups and creator-led brands like MrBeast's Feastables. The company looks for startups that are leveraging creators to build new businesses and acquire customers. As a venture studio, it offers its companies a mix of funding and sweat equity, helping upstarts get their businesses off the ground. Cooperstein is the president of Night. Duchscher also runs Night's talent management firm. Mathews was previously at Bessemer Venture Partners. The company incubated creator-oriented startups like Outtake, an AI tool to protect creators and brands from deepfakes, and Troveo, a startup that enables creators to license their content to AI companies for training purposes. Fund size: The company doesn't have a set fund, but invests between $500,000 and $2 million in startups and creator-led brands. Patron has deep ties to the gaming industry and is backing startups across community, commerce, and media Investors: Amber Atherton, partner; Brian Cho, general partner; Jason Yeh, general partner Patron was founded in 2021 by Cho and Yeh, both former Riot Games executives. The firm invests in seed-stage consumer startups across several categories. Prior to launching Patron, Cho was an investor at A16z and led Riot's business and corporate development arms. He focuses on consumer startups across gaming, fitness, and health. Yeh started his career at FirstMark Capital and left to join Riot Games. He focuses on media, entertainment, and commerce. Atherton joined the firm full-time in 2023 and was previously the founder of Zyper, a community platform that was acquired by Discord. She primarily focuses on startups building tools for community and commerce. Patron recently backed SweatPals, which offers tools for fitness creators to monetize their communities with tools like memberships or events. Fund size: $100 million fund that closed at the end of 2024, according to the firm. Point72 Ventures sees creators as a 'critical part' of the internet Investor: Ishan Sinha, partner Sinha invests in early and growth-stage companies across consumer tech. He was previously an investor at Human Capital and an analyst at Goldman Sachs. When making investments in the creator economy, Sinha typically looks for startups solving problems for both creators and consumers, as well as teams with strong go-to-market backgrounds. The firm has previously backed creator economy companies such as Range Media Partners, a talent management company. For Point72, the creator economy umbrella is broad. "It's anything sort of related to the internet economy and people living and breathing and creating an income for themselves on the internet," Sinha said. Recent investments: Precursor Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage firm that closed a new fund in April Investor: Charles Hudson, founder and managing partner In 2015, Hudson founded Precursor Ventures, an early-stage, generalist fund. Precursor announced that it closed its fifth fund at $66 million in April. At the time, Hudson said in a LinkedIn post that the firm had "a strong affinity for first-time founders whose potential has not been correctly understood by those looking for more traditional quality signals." He told BI that he is eyeing three categories in the creator economy space: Creator tools that help with business infrastructure, like revenue management or taxes. Scalable AI tools for tailored fan experiences. Community monetization "platforms for exclusive access and micro-communities." Fund size: $66 million, according to the firm. Recent investments: Bindery Books, a platform for book content creators Weights, an AI creative tool Slow Ventures looks for creators with 'deep authority' in a particular niche Investor: Sam Lessin, general partner; Megan Lightcap, partner; Billy Parks, venture partner Slow Ventures is an early-stage VC firm that operates a $60 million fund for investing in content creators. The company finds influencers who have authority in a particular content niche and invests between $1 million and $3 million for a roughly 10% stake in their overall businesses. That means the firm can get a return on a creator's media assets, like YouTube and brand deals, and also spin-off businesses they may launch, such as a food creator launching a cookbook. Slow is particularly drawn to creators who are looking to move beyond social media, Lightcap told Business Insider in February. "They look at the media not as the end, but as the means to an end, and think of their content and community, really, as this strategic asset on which they can launch other types of companies," she said. Fund size: $60 million, according to the company. Recent investments: The company writes checks ranging from $1 million to $3 million directly to creators, including woodworking creator Jonathan Katz-Moses. Spice Capital sees creators as the next generation of small businesses Investor: Maya Bakhai, founder and general partner Spice Capital launched in 2021 and now has over 50 portfolio companies across AI, the blockchain, and consumer, Bakhai said. It invests in founders who are capitalizing on new behaviors and cultural shifts. Prior to launching Spice, Bakhai worked at Kevin Durant's VC firm Thirty Five Ventures and amassed capital as an angel investor through profits from her bet on Crocs. "Everyone is a creator, whether your viral video became a meme, whether you are publishing your résumé on LinkedIn, writing as an independent journalist, or a startup looking for distribution edge," she said. "Everyone is competing in the same attention economy where the best narratives earn spotlight and a premium in valuation." Fund size: Fund II is a $25 million fund specializing in pre-seed, Bakhai said. Recent investments: Beehiiv, a newsletter platform Dirt, a newsletter company with five brands across entertainment, books, design, tennis, and news Hype, an app for trading memecoins MUBI, a streaming service, production company, and distributor for curated films Upside Ventures uses social media marketing to help boost its portfolio companies Investors: Jamie Elliott, general partner; Sam Uwins, general partner Upside Ventures is a London-based VC firm that focuses on seed-stage investments in consumer startups. The firm has roots in the creator economy. Uwins, a general partner, works with YouTube creators The Sidemen. He's helped them develop businesses like the vodka product XIX and a fried-chicken restaurant chain called Sides. Upside said its ties to media properties like YouTube help it boost brand visibility for its portfolio companies. Fund size: $25 million, according to the company. Recent investments: Ceartas, a content detection tool for creators that tracks down stolen content, fake profiles, and deepfakes ChatBCC, a group chat platform for creators
Forbes
a day ago
- Forbes
Meet The Tech Billionaire Giving Students A Boost
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Entrepreneur Daniella Pierson cozied up to everyone from designer Diane von Furstenberg to actor Selena Gomez, touting millions in net-worth and growing subscriber numbers for her lifestyle newsletter The Newsette. But a new Forbes investigation found that her so-called business empire was just 'smoke and mirrors,' with a reputation built on Pierson's exaggerations and self-promotion. Fear of superintelligent AI is driving a number of Harvard and MIT students to drop out of the prestigious institutions, reports Forbes' Victoria Feng. Some are scared that generative AI will take away many entry-level roles, while others are more worried about the technology's potential devastating effects on humanity. But their response is the same: leave school and start pursuing a career before it's too late. U.S. manufacturing contracted at its fastest pace in nine months in July, as overall hiring slowed, according to Bloomberg. 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