Okera (Acquired by Databricks)

Okera, founded in 2016 by Nong Li, was a data governance and security company that specialized in AI-centric solutions for managing data privacy, access control, and compliance. In May 2023, Okera was acquired by Databricks to enhance secure AI and large language model (LLM) integration. The company raised approximately $29.6 million in venture funding from notable investors. Okera offered a data governance platform featuring AI-centric governance to secure machine-generated data, unified data access control for various workloads, and a no-code policy engine for easy management of data access. Their self-service portal allowed users to request and track data permissions, while automated discovery identified sensitive data across datasets. After the acquisition, Okera's technology became part of Databricks' Unity Catalog, enhancing dynamic access controls and real-time policy enforcement for AI-generated data assets.