# Fivetran Bolsters Data Pipeline with Census Acquisition, Creates End-to-End Data Movement Platform

## Fivetran Bolsters Data Pipeline with Census Acquisition, Creates End-to-End Data Movement Platform

In a move aimed at providing a complete data movement solution, Fivetran announced today its acquisition of Census, a leading reverse ETL (extract, transform, load) platform. This acquisition, marking nearly 13 years in business for Fivetran, signifies a strategic expansion beyond its core competency of ingesting data into cloud data warehouses.

Fivetran has long been known for streamlining the process of moving data from various sources into cloud databases. Census, on the other hand, specializes in “reverse ETL,” enabling companies to push data *out* of those databases and into operational tools such as CRM, marketing automation platforms, and customer support systems. Founded in 2018, Census had raised over $80 million from prominent investors like Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Tiger Global, reaching a valuation of $630 million in 2022.

While the specific terms of the deal remain undisclosed, the acquisition will see the entire Census team integrate into Fivetran, with the Census brand eventually becoming part of the Fivetran platform.

According to Fivetran CEO and co-founder George Fraser, the acquisition makes strategic sense for several reasons. He notes that a significant number of Fivetran customers have been requesting a reverse ETL solution for some time. While Fivetran considered developing its own in-house offering, even building a prototype, they ultimately decided that acquiring a company already excelling in the space was a more efficient use of resources.

“Technically speaking, if you look at the code underneath [these] services, they’re actually pretty different,” Fraser explained. “You have to solve a pretty different set of problems in order to do this.”

The synergy between the two companies extends beyond technical capabilities. Fraser highlighted the fact that Fivetran and Census share a significant overlap in their customer base and a similar philosophical approach to data integration. “People who like Fivetran, as compared to Informatica or building their own connectors, they are going to be people who also like Census,” he stated. “The two products make broadly similar philosophical choices, and so they tend to appeal to the same customers, which is very important when you’re thinking about synergy.”

Adding a personal touch, Fraser revealed that the founding teams of Fivetran and Census have a long-standing relationship, dating back to their time in the Y Combinator winter 2013 batch. Fraser and his co-founder, Taylor Brown, met Census CEO Boris Jabes and Anton Vaynshtok, who were then building Meldium, a password management system later acquired by LogMeIn. They remained in contact and even discussed the idea of Census years before it was founded.

Now, nearly a decade later, this shared history and vision have culminated in Fivetran’s acquisition of Census, bringing their combined expertise under one roof and promising a seamless, end-to-end data movement platform for enterprises. “We talked to the Census founders about their idea before they even started the company, and Taylor [Brown] and I joked at the time that it might end up in an acquisition, because there’s a lot of synergy between the two things,” Fraser said. “In some ways, this has been fated, I think.”