Datadog snaps up Metaplane to improve data quality for AI applications and systems

Cloud security and application monitoring giant Datadog Inc. said today it’s looking to expand the scope of its data observability offerings after acquiring a startup called Metaplane.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Datadog stressed that Metaplane will help to accelerate its push into the area of data observability, where it already offers a number of its own products. By adding Metaplane’s tools to its own suite, Datadog said, it will enable its users to identify and take instant action to remedy any data quality issues affecting their most critical business applications.

Metaplane, founded in 2020, has built an end-to-end data observability platform that combines artificial intelligence with column-level lineage to try and detect, resolve and also prevent data quality problems from occurring. It’s an important tool for any company that’s trying to make data-driven decisions, since “bad” data means those decisions are being made based on the wrong insights.

The company has created proprietary, AI-powered anomaly detection models, and it trains these on its customers’ historical metadata to establish a baseline about what is good – and bad – data. It then attempts to establish lineages in the customer’s data warehouse, leveraging the same tools it uses for reporting and data analysis. This allows it to notify customers of any issues with the tools that are creating their data, such as Slack, PagerDuty and the like.

Metaplane had raised $22.3 million in venture capital prior to being acquired, with backers including Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures and Flybridge Capital Partners, and has about 10 employees.

Datadog Vice President Michael Whetten said observability has become vital in the day-to-day responsibilities of data operations teams. Moreover, he believes it will become increasingly important as more enterprises deploy AI applications, which need high quality data for accuracy.

According to Whetten, Metaplane’s offerings will help the company to unify observability across data and applications so its customers can “build reliable AI systems.”

When the acquisition closes, Metaplane will continue to support its existing customers as a standalone product, though it will be rebranded as “Metaplane by Datadog.” Of course, Datadog will also look to integrate Metaplane’s capabilities within its own platform, and likely do its utmost to get Metaplane’s customers onboard.

Metplane co-founder and Chief Executive Kevin Hu said his company’s mission has always been about ensuring trust in the data that powers their business. “Joining forces with Datadog enables us to bring data observability to tens of thousands more companies, while bringing data teams and software teams closer together,” he said.

Datadog has already made one other acquisition this year, buying a company called Quickwit Inc. in January for an undisclosed price. That company had built an open-source and cloud-native search engine for data logs, which is being integrated within the Datadog platform.

The focus on data observability comes at a critical time for Datadog, which has been suffering from the disruption caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic policies. In its most recent earnings call in February, Datadog beat expectations, but its fiscal 2025 revenue forecast fell short of analysts’ expectations.

The data observability market is therefore a tempting target for Datadog. According to data from Grand View Research, the data observability tools market was valued at $2.14 billion in 2023, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.2% between 2024 and 2030.

Datadog faces a lot of competition in the squabble for a piece of that pie, however. Rivals include Monte Carlo Data Inc., Cribl Inc., Observe Inc., Relyance AI Inc., Better Stack Inc. and Coralogix Ltd., to name just a few.

Like those players, Datadog will need to differentiate its data observability tools from those rivals if it wants to capitalize on the market’s potential. Buying Metaplane is one way of doing that.

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