Census
UpdatedCensus was founded in 2018 by Boris Jabes, Sean Lynch, Brad Menezes, and Anton Vaynshtok to solve a practical problem: getting customer insights out of data warehouses and into the operational tools—Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot—where sales, marketing, and support teams could act on them.
Profile
Syncs customer and business data from cloud data warehouses directly into operational tools like Salesforce and HubSpot in real time.
Census was founded in 2018 by Boris Jabes, Sean Lynch, Brad Menezes, and Anton Vaynshtok to solve a practical problem: getting customer insights out of data warehouses and into the operational tools—Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot—where sales, marketing, and support teams could act on them. The company pioneered the "Reverse ETL" category, which flips traditional data pipelines: instead of moving data from apps into warehouses, Census moves insights back out, in real time. Jabes, a former Microsoft C++ graphics engineer and Y Combinator 2013 founder (Meldium, acquired by LogMeIn), ran Census on a lean team and raised $80.3 million across three rounds from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, and Insight Partners.
By 2022, Census had reached a $630 million valuation and grown to over fifty employees serving hundreds of customers, including Figma (which used Census to sync product usage into Salesforce), Canva, Notion, and Docker. In 2024, Census broadened its focus beyond reverse ETL. In June, it launched Live Syncs, claiming 100x faster and 100x cheaper data activation than traditional batch processing, optimized for Snowflake.
In July, the company announced its Universal Data Platform, a workspace for data transformation, governance, and activation—a pivot toward the wider "data activation" and customer data narrative. The company was also named Snowflake's 2024 Marketing Application Data Cloud Product Partner of the Year. However, the company's independent run ended on May 1, 2025, when Fivetran announced an acquisition for an undisclosed price.
Jabes will lead Fivetran's data activation strategy as the Census brand is folded into Fivetran's platform. The deal consolidates the "forward ETL" (Fivetran's traditional strength in moving data into warehouses) with reverse ETL, positioning Fivetran as an end-to-end data movement platform.
Who buys this
- Product-led growth companies (SaaS startups) running analytics on Snowflake or BigQuery
- Mid-market sales and marketing teams using Salesforce for account-based orchestration
- Data teams powering real-time personalization and activation workflows
- Enterprises using Figma/Notion for internal data governance and team collaboration
Publicly disclosed clients
- Figma
- Canva
- Notion
- Docker
- ClickUp
- DigitalOcean
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Pioneer and market definer in Reverse ETL; customers see it as the warehouse-native alternative to broader CDP platforms
- Proven product-market fit with PLG companies; early adopters like Figma and Canva remain vocal references
- Strong founder with credible data engineering background and Y Combinator pedigree, now embedded in Fivetran's leadership
Watch for
- Integration velocity with Fivetran: Census brand absorption and product roadmap clarity will signal whether it remains a distinct offering or gets bundled; no timeline disclosed
- Customer retention risk: Mid-market and enterprise customers may face pricing changes or deprecation of Census-specific features post-integration
- Competitive pressure from Hightouch (300+ destinations vs. Census's ~200) and from CDP vendors (Segment, mParticle) moving into activation
Key Information
- Industry
- Reverse ETL / Activation
- Founded
- 2018
- Employees
- 51-200
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Census?
Census is a data integration platform that syncs customer and business data from cloud data warehouses directly into operational tools like Salesforce and HubSpot in real time. It pioneered the Reverse ETL category, moving insights from warehouses back to where sales and marketing teams can act.
What is Reverse ETL?
Reverse ETL flips traditional data pipelines. Instead of moving data from applications into warehouses, it moves insights back out to operational tools in real time. Census pioneered this category, enabling teams to activate warehouse data directly in systems like Salesforce where they work.
What is Census used for?
Census connects data warehouses to operational tools for sales, marketing, and support teams. Product-led growth companies use it to sync analytics from Snowflake or BigQuery into Salesforce. Mid-market teams use Census for real-time account-based marketing orchestration and personalization workflows powered by warehouse data.
Was Census acquired?
Yes, Fivetran acquired Census on May 1, 2025, for an undisclosed price. CEO Boris Jabes joined Fivetran to head its data activation strategy. The acquisition consolidates forward ETL with Census's reverse ETL, positioning Fivetran as an end-to-end data movement platform.
How does Census compare to Hightouch?
Hightouch supports over 300 destinations compared to Census's roughly 200. Both operate in Reverse ETL, but Hightouch offers broader integration options. Census focuses on warehouse-native integration for product-led growth companies and is known for customer strength with SaaS leaders like Figma and Canva.
Which companies use Census?
Notable Census customers include Figma, Canva, Notion, Docker, ClickUp, and DigitalOcean. Figma used Census to sync product usage data into Salesforce. These product-led growth companies represent Census's customer base of hundreds of organizations across SaaS and data teams.
How Census compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Census
- Positioning
- Syncs customer and business data from cloud data warehouses directly into operational tools like Salesforce and HubSpot in real time.
- Customer segments
- Product-led growth companies (SaaS startups) running analytics on Snowflake or BigQuery
- Strengths
- Pioneer and market definer in Reverse ETL; customers see it as the warehouse-native alternative to broader CDP platforms
- Watch for
- Integration velocity with Fivetran: Census brand absorption and product roadmap clarity will signal whether it remains a distinct offering or gets bundled; no timeline disclosed
Hightouch
- Positioning
- Warehouse-native data activation syncing to 250-plus destinations, with built-in audience builder and ML-driven personalization.
- Customer segments
- Mid-market to enterprise B2C and B2B teams with existing warehouses and in-house data engineering.
- Strengths
- 250-plus destination connectors, native audience builder, ML-driven decisioning, identity resolution, no separate CDP layer needed.
- Watch for
- Mid-contract pricing changes reported on G2. Enterprise licenses average $132K per year. Usage-based costs hard to forecast.
- Recent moves
- April 2026: raised $150M Series D at $2.75B valuation. April 2026: acquired HeadsUp to add predictive scoring to Customer 360.
Twilio Segment
- Positioning
- CDP unifying event data across 400-plus sources, repositioning as real-time data layer for agent personalization.
- Customer segments
- Mid-market to enterprise B2C teams in retail, fintech, and media needing omnichannel activation.
- Strengths
- Linked Audiences queries live profiles directly in Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, and Databricks without copying data.
- Watch for
- Support quality decline and culture shift cited post-acquisition. Pricing escalates sharply past 1,000 MTU free tier.
- Recent moves
- May 2025: Generative Audiences reached GA and Event-Triggered Journeys entered public beta. November 2025: Twilio acquired identity platform Stytch.
RudderStack
- Positioning
- Warehouse-first platform combining event collection, identity resolution, and reverse ETL for developer teams.
- Customer segments
- Developer-heavy teams at AI-native companies and enterprises needing event streaming, warehouse sync, and activation in one layer.
- Strengths
- Single pipeline covers event collection, identity resolution, and reverse ETL, removing need for three separate vendor integrations.
- Watch for
- Discontinued cloud extract sources without warning. Enterprise pricing at high event volumes flagged as unclear in reviews.
- Recent moves
- February 2026: launched RudderCLI enabling Git-versioned tracking plans and CI-validated schema changes for production pipelines.
Sources
- techcrunch.com — Fivetran acquisition announcement, undisclosed price, Boris Jabes joining Fivetran, strategic rationale
- www.crunchbase.com — Funding rounds, founder names, employee count, valuation history
- techcrunch.com — Series B $60M in Feb 2022, $630M valuation, Tiger Global lead, investor list
- www.getcensus.com — Figma as named customer, use case of syncing product data to Salesforce
- a16z.com — Andreessen Horowitz seed round participation and investment thesis
- www.linkedin.com — Boris Jabes background, Y Combinator, Microsoft experience, CEO role
- siliconangle.com — Acquisition details, Census funding history, strategic positioning, customer impact