ServiceNow, the enterprise workflow automation leader, announced on Wednesday its second AI-focused acquisition of the year — Data.World, a cloud-native platform known for its powerful data catalog and governance tools.
This acquisition supports ServiceNow’s ongoing strategy to deliver agentic AI at scale by empowering businesses to make their data more accessible, organized, and AI-ready.
Why ServiceNow Chose Data.World
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Data.World has raised over $130 million in venture capital from investors like Alumni Ventures and Shasta Ventures. While financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed, the company was last valued at $350 million during its $50 million Series C funding round in 2022, according to PitchBook.
Gaurav Rewari, SVP and GM of Data and Analytics at ServiceNow, explained the rationale behind the acquisition. “The road to agentic AI heaven often runs through data hell — and that’s the grim reality for most enterprises,” he said. ServiceNow needed a solution that could simplify the process of managing enterprise data while preparing it for intelligent automation and AI applications.
Data.World fit the bill. Its platform helps companies catalog metadata, enforce data governance, and make enterprise data easily discoverable and actionable. “We were impressed with the depth of their metadata infrastructure and the way it enables large organizations to handle data complexity,” Rewari said.
The integration of Data.World will allow ServiceNow customers to harness their data more effectively, enabling higher performance from AI agents and automation tools. Once the deal closes, Data.World’s platform will be added to ServiceNow’s product suite.
Expanding the Agentic AI Ecosystem
This marks ServiceNow’s second major AI acquisition in 2024. In March, the company announced the $2.85 billion purchase of Moveworks, a developer of AI-driven automation tools built specifically for enterprise environments.
Together, these acquisitions highlight ServiceNow’s commitment to becoming a leader in agentic AI — a future-forward AI framework focused on proactive, autonomous systems that can handle complex workflows and decision-making across departments.
Philip Kirk, ServiceNow’s SVP of Corporate Business Development, previously shared the company’s AI roadmap. “We’re strategically blending build, buy, and partner approaches,” he told TechCrunch. “The key question is how we best serve customers long-term while building on our strength in enterprise automation.”
Kirk’s strategy is now in full view: build core tools in-house, buy specialized companies like Data.World and Moveworks, and partner where synergy exists. This tri-fold approach positions ServiceNow to offer end-to-end AI infrastructure — from data preparation to intelligent execution.
ServiceNow’s investment in data governance and AI integration underscores a broader trend in enterprise software, where access to clean, well-managed data has become a prerequisite for deploying reliable and scalable AI systems.
By absorbing Data.World’s capabilities, ServiceNow is helping its clients overcome one of the biggest obstacles in AI adoption: data chaos. With better governance and visibility, businesses can ensure their AI tools operate on trustworthy, relevant, and up-to-date information.
