Alation acquires Numbers Station, an AI data analysis startup backed by Madrona

Silicon Valley data intelligence company Alation announced the acquisition of Numbers Station, an 18-person startup with roots in Seattle that helps customers use natural language to automate data analysis. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2021, Numbers Station came out of research at Stanford University on applying AI to data problems. Two years later, the company raised $17.5 million in a Series A round led by Seattle venture firm Madrona. Other backers include Norwest Venture Partners; Factory; former Tableau CEO Mark Nelson; Cloudera co-founder Jeff Hammerbacher; and Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan. “By joining forces with Alation,… Read More

May 20, 2025 - 16:20

Alation acquires Numbers Station, an AI data analysis startup backed by Madrona

Silicon Valley data intelligence company Alation announced the acquisition of Numbers Station, an 18-person startup with roots in Seattle that helps customers use natural language to automate data analysis.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2021, Numbers Station came out of research at Stanford University on applying AI to data problems. Two years later, the company raised $17.5 million in a Series A round led by Seattle venture firm Madrona.

Other backers include Norwest Venture Partners; Factory; former Tableau CEO Mark Nelson; Cloudera co-founder Jeff Hammerbacher; and Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan.

“By joining forces with Alation, we’re pairing our AI-native foundation with the most trusted enterprise data intelligence platform,” Chris Aberger, co-founder and CEO of Numbers Station, said in a statement. “This unlocks a future where agents don’t just find data — they do more with it.”

Numbers Station has 10 customers. Its product will be integrated into the Alation platform.

Alation launched in 2012 and was valued at $1.7 billion in 2022 after raising $123 million in a Series E round. The company helps more than 600 enterprise customers with data organization and governance. It recently launched new “agentic” tools to help companies build AI agents with their data.

Aberger and a small group of employees are based in the Seattle region, working out of the Create33 space in a floor below Madrona’s headquarters in downtown Seattle.

Aberger co-founded the company with Ines Chami, Sen Wu, and Chris Ré.