After nearly 13 years in business, Fivetran has taken a major step toward offering a complete, end-to-end data movement platform. The company announced the Fivetran Census acquisition on Thursday, expanding its capabilities to include reverse ETL solutions.
Fivetran is known for helping enterprises transfer data from multiple sources into cloud data warehouses. With the addition of Census—a platform that moves data out of cloud databases into operational tools—Fivetran now covers both directions of enterprise data flow.
A Natural Fit for Both Teams
Census, founded in 2018, quickly rose to prominence in the reverse ETL space. Backed by top investors like Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Tiger Global, the company raised over $80 million and reached a valuation of $630 million by 2022.
Although the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, Fivetran confirmed that the entire Census team will transition into Fivetran. Eventually, the Census brand will be integrated fully into the Fivetran platform.
George Fraser, CEO and co-founder of Fivetran, said that the move was driven by increasing customer demand. Many clients had long requested a reverse ETL solution to complement Fivetran’s core offerings. The team even built a prototype internally but later realized that acquiring an established leader like Census was a better use of time and 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.”
Shared Customers, Shared Vision
Fraser said the Fivetran Census acquisition was a logical choice due to the significant overlap in customer bases. Both platforms appeal to companies looking for simple, reliable data movement solutions—those that prefer Fivetran over older platforms like Informatica.
“People who like Fivetran, as compared to building their own connectors, are going to be people who also like Census,” Fraser noted. “The two products make broadly similar philosophical choices.”
In terms of company culture, the relationship runs deep. Fraser and Fivetran co-founder Taylor Brown first met Census founders Boris Jabes and Anton Vaynshtok during Y Combinator’s 2013 winter batch. At the time, the Census founders were working on Meldium, a password management startup later acquired by LogMeIn.
That early friendship helped lay the groundwork for this acquisition. “We talked to the Census founders about their idea before they even started the company,” Fraser said. “Taylor and I joked back then that it might end up in an acquisition, because there’s a lot of synergy between the two things.”
What It Means for Fivetran Customers
With Census now under its wing, Fivetran can finally deliver on a vision customers have been waiting for: full-circle data mobility. Enterprises can move data from operational systems into warehouses—and now back out to apps like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Marketo.
This Fivetran Census acquisition marks a turning point for the company, positioning it as a more comprehensive player in the modern data stack. It also signals increasing consolidation in the data infrastructure space, as platforms race to offer more value and simplicity to customers managing vast flows of business-critical information.
As the integration process begins, existing Census customers can expect a seamless transition. And for Fivetran users, a more powerful and complete data movement platform is on the horizon.
