More consolidation among data tools, as Fivetran acquires Census

The ongoing battle to clean up, unify and activate data led to another acquisition this week, as Fivetran announced it signed an agreement to acquire Census.

With the acquisition, Fivetran now sees itself as a fully managed platform that enables enterprises to move governed, automated and real-time data across their entire stack, from source systems to data platforms and now back into the business applications that drive decisions.

Fivetran’s core product is automated ELT/ETL connectors that pull data into a cloud warehouse or lake from more than 900 SaaS apps, databases and streams. It focuses on upstream ingestion. The typical Fivetran user is in data engineering or analytics.

Census, on the other hand, offers reverse ETL and the downstream activation of data. It syncs modeled data out of the data warehouse into the operational systems often used by revenue teams, such as CRM, ad platforms and support tools. It also provides a no-code audience builder, data governance and AI/ML enrichment. The typical Census user is in marketing, RevOps or product-led growth (PLG). 

While this acquisition is drawing comparisons to the wave of CDP deals‘ struck in late 2024 and early 2025, neither Fivetran or Census is considered a traditional packaged CDP. 

Dig deeper: Why independent CDPs are disappearing (and what comes next)

Census is often positioned as a warehouse-native or composable CDP because it lets marketing and RevOps teams build segments inside data warehouses instead of in a CDP. 

Finally, as with most things happening in data and martech today, there’s an AI component to this deal. AI agents need clean, quality data, and they need the ability to push results back into operational systems quickly. By combining upstream and downstream functionality, Fivetran better positions itself to compete in the AI era. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Census team will be joining Fivetran, according to a release announcing the deal. 

Matthew Niederberger posted a thoughtful analysis of how the Fivetran-Census deal impacts the customer data market given earlier M&A activity.