dbt Labs was founded in 2016 originally under the name Fishtown Analytics by Tristan Handy, Drew Banin, and Connor McArthur. The company started as a data analytics consulting firm focusing on helping venture-funded companies implement advanced data workflows and data tooling. It grew out of an open-source project called dbt (data build tool), created to improve the transformation of raw data into valuable insights, facilitating the work of data analysts and engineers. Tristan Handy, the CEO, developed the idea based on his experience with the challenges in generating insights from large volumes of raw data and the gap between data analysts and engineers.
dbt Labs has become a leader in data transformation, with over 60,000 companies using its products. The core offering, dbt, is an open-source command line tool that allows analysts and engineers to transform data within warehouses efficiently following software engineering best practices. The company helps improve data team workflows by making complex data transformations manageable and scalable.
The company rebranded from Fishtown Analytics to dbt Labs in 2021, reflecting its growth and focus on the dbt product ecosystem. They have expanded globally, including opening a European hub in Dublin. dbt Labs is backed by major venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and Altimeter, raising significant funding rounds, including a Series D valuing the company at $4.2 billion.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, USA, dbt Labs continues to build a community-driven platform that empowers data practitioners worldwide by enabling better data transformation workflows and fostering organizational knowledge creation and dissemination. The company operates in the software and data analytics industry, specifically focusing on data transformation tools within the modern data stack.