Fivetran Acquires Tobiko Data to Strengthen the ‘T’ in ETL
The deal highlights how transformation—the “T” in ETL—is no longer an afterthought, but the centerpiece of governance, AI readiness, and analytics engineering.
For years, dbt Labs has been the undisputed leader in data transformation. dbt became the de facto standard for analytics engineering by enabling data teams to write, version, and orchestrate SQL models with software-engineering rigor. It is the one tool nearly every modern data team considers indispensable—the “T” in ETL effectively starts with dbt.
dbt’s leadership is so strong that it has begun to commoditize the EL layer: if transformation is standardized in dbt, ingestion and loading can become utilities, not differentiators. That is a testament to the power of the dbt ecosystem.
dbt’s Lead: From Community to Compiler Intelligence
In January 2025, dbt Labs reinforced its technical moat by acquiring SDF Labs. The deal brought a Rust-based SQL compiler that enables dbt to truly understand SQL—not just execute it.
This acquisition cemented dbt’s role as the innovation engine in transformation, ensuring it remains central to the workflows of hundreds of thousands of analytics engineers.
Fivetran’s Move: Validating Transformation with Tobiko
Yesterday, September 3 2025, Fivetran announced the acquisition of Tobiko Data, the creators of SQLMesh and SQLGlot. SQLMesh and SQLGlot have already gained strong traction in the open-source community, and we highlighted them in our earlier Data Infrastructure in 2025 piece.
Fivetran, long known as the market leader in automated ingestion, now generates more than $300M ARR and is IPO-ready. By acquiring Tobiko, it signaled that owning transformation is essential to staying relevant in the modern stack—a direct validation of the standard dbt established.
What Tobiko adds for Fivetran:
SQLMesh for incremental transformations and semantic awareness.
Virtual Data Environments for safe, isolated development.
SQLGlot for multi-dialect parsing across engines.
Tobiko’s founding team—Toby Mao (Airbnb/Netflix), Iaroslav Zeigerman (Netflix/Apple), and Tyson Mao—built SQLMesh based on years of experience with brittle pipelines at scale. Their vision of efficient, stateful transformations resonated with open-source users and Fivetran alike.
It’s important to note: this isn’t a zero-sum rivalry. dbt continues to lead transformation with unmatched community adoption shaping how data teams work. Fivetran’s acquisition of Tobiko is an acknowledgment—recognizing that transformation is the layer that truly matters, and that dbt defined the space.
Conclusion
Transformation is no longer the overlooked step between ingestion and dashboards. It is the center of the modern data stack, where governance, AI-readiness, and developer workflows converge.
dbt Labs remains the anchor: the first name data teams reach for, the company pushing the boundaries with compiler intelligence and AI-assisted development.
Fivetran is expanding its scope: Tobiko strengthens its offering, but more importantly, validates the centrality of dbt’s vision.
In the years ahead, dbt’s influence will only grow as AI and governance demand semantic understanding of data pipelines. Fivetran’s move underscores what the market already knew: transformation—pioneered and defined by dbt—is where the real value lies. Tobiko brings excellent technology to the Fivetran platform, but dbt continues to set the standard others follow.
Major congratulations to the Tobiko Data team on the validation—and credit to dbt Labs for creating the standard others are racing to follow
