The Fivetran + dbt merger is a big deal — one of those tectonic shifts that reorders how people build data stacks. If you haven’t already heard, here’s the hot goss:
In October 2025, Fivetran and dbt Labs dropped the mic: they’re merging in an all-stock deal. The combined entity is projected to have nearly $600 million ARR and serve more than 10,000 customers. Fivetran CEO George Fraser will lead the new company, while dbt’s Tristan Handy becomes cofounder + president. The merger is being framed as a “merger of equals” rather than a straight acquisition.
If you’re thinking, “Wait — these two already acted like peanut butter and jelly in the modern data stack,” you’re not wrong: reports say 80–90% of Fivetran customers already use dbt in their pipelines. The stack logic is obvious: Fivetran handles the “E” and “L” (extract, load), dbt handles the “T” (transform). Now they’re trying to own all three — or at least, unify their alliance.
Why Now, and Why It’s Messy
The timing suggest a strategic pivot. Fivetran’s been on a shopping spree in 2025. In May, they acquired Census, bringing reverse ETL / data activation into their domain. In September, they snapped up Tobiko Data, creators of SQLMesh / SQLGlot, strengthening their transformation muscle.
So, when Fivetran says “we want to be more than ingestion,” they’re not bluffing. They’re building a stack that spans movement, transformation, and activation. The dbt merger just raises the ceiling.
But — yes, there’s a but. Merging two engineering cultures, two tooling philosophies, and two community expectations is a logistical beast. There’s also fear among the dbt community: will the open-source ethos survive under the hood of a company known for managed SaaS models? Tristan Handy and Fivetran both publicly commit to keeping dbt Core open under its current license. That’s reassuring, but the proof is in the execution.
Also, since many customers already run Fivetran + dbt as distinct services, one challenge will be reducing friction in usage and pricing, while avoiding alienating power users who want modular control.
What a Fivetran Ddbt Merger Means for the Data Stack
From a developer’s lens, this merger may reshape how we think about data infra layers. Here’s a few speculative takeaways (with a grain of salt):
- Vertical consolidation: Instead of stitching tools from different vendors, more teams may lean toward bundled suites that “just work.” Fivetran + dbt may push more users toward “integrated stack” thinking — for better or worse.
- Vendor lock-in risk: The trade-off is obvious. When the ingestion and transformation layers are deeply tied, switching out one becomes costlier. Data teams will want strong decoupling, pluggable APIs, and modular exit paths.
- Pressure on niche tools: Alternatives like SQLMesh, Meltano, or smaller transformation projects may feel more pressure. If Fivetran + dbt can deliver transformation features baked into ingestion, they might cannibalize some upstarts — unless those projects lean deeply into specialization or community roots.
- Faster innovation: One upside is synergy. Shared telemetry, metadata, lineage, and governance may get smoother. If the engineering teams can integrate such systems without breaking too many things, users may see faster iteration on features.
- Community trust is gold: dbt’s community has been evangelistic, open, opinionated. Fivetran’s move into transformation (via acquisitions and now merger) may be viewed skeptically unless it maintains transparency, community governance, and open standards.
The Jury’s Out on a Fivetran dbt Merger
…and will be for a good while. If executed well, the Fivetran dbt merger might create a unified data platform that’s more cohesive, more interoperable, and less “glue wiring.” If done poorly, it could fracture trust, create monolithic vendor lock, or slow down the pace of innovation under the weight of scale.
For developers now, my advice is: keep your abstractions clean and your ingestions cleaner. If you build pipelines assuming Fivetran or dbt is swappable, you’ll sleep better at night. Watch how this integration plays out, and consider how your dependency graph might change as more features get folded into this new combined entity.
Ingesting, transforming, activating — Fivetran+dbt is trying to own the full journey. It’s definitely ambitious. It may be hubris. Time will tell whether it’s brilliant or insane in the membrane.
References
- Reuters: Fivetran, dbt Labs to merge in all-stock deal (Reuters)
- dbt Labs blog on merger announcement (dbt Labs)
- SiliconAngle coverage of merger (SiliconANGLE)
- Fivetran press on Census acquisition (Fivetran)
- Fivetran press on Tobiko acquisition (Fivetran)
