Alation acquires Numbers Station to expand AI agent capabilities for enterprise data workflows

Data intelligence company Alation Inc. announced today it has acquired Numbers Station Inc., a startup that’s building artificial intelligence agents for data workflows, for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2021 when it was spun out of Stanford University’s AI research labs, Numbers Station specializes in building AI agents that automate complex data workflows, targeting the needs of modern data teams within large enterprises.

Numbers Station’s platform leverages large language models to bring natural language understanding and reasoning to structured data tasks. In doing so, the platform allows users to interact with data using plain English, eliminating the need for SQL queries or custom scripts, which helps democratize data access across an organization.

The company’s platform uses a multi-agent architecture, where different AI agents are allocated tasks such as data cleaning, transformation, enrichment and analysis. The agents work together in orchestrated pipelines, enabling end-to-end data workflows that are claimed to be faster, more accurate and easier to build.

Numbers Station’s offering works with existing enterprise infrastructure, allowing organizations to deploy AI-native applications without having to overhaul their current systems.

Post-acquisition, Numbers Station agents will be combined with Alation’s rich metadata foundation to allow customers to build intelligent applications that reason over structured data, understand business context and automate real-time decision-making, all while also maintaining rigorous governance and compliance standards. According to Alation, the combination of the tech from both companies will unlock a new era of agentic workflows that can deliver tangible business outcomes at enterprise scale.

“Numbers Station has proven the impact AI agents can have in the enterprise when companies are able to trust this new way of working and brings an exceptional team that shares our obsession with empowering data users,” explains Alation co-founder and Chief Executive Satyen Sangani. “Together, we’re laying the foundation for the next decade of enterprise data intelligence – one where humans and agents collaborate seamlessly to turn data into action.”

As part of the acquisition, the Numbers Station team (pictured) is joining Alation, which said all Numbers Station customers will be fully supported and benefit from expanded resources and a roadmap of continuity under Alation’s platform.

Coming into its acquisition, Numbers Station had raised $12.5 million over two rounds, according to Tracxn. Investors in the company included Madrona Venture Group, Norwest Venture Partners LP and Factory.

Sangani spoke with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, in September, when he discussed how the company’s integration with Salesforce Data Cloud supports accuracy and compliance for AI models.

Photo: Numbers Station