Google has agreed to buy data analytics platform Looker for $2.6 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close later this year after regulatory approval has been secured. Looker will be integrated into a rebranded Google Cloud Services platform called Anthos.

Anthony Spadafora outlined Google’s reasons for buying Looker in this report published in TechRadar:

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, who joined the company last November, explained how the acquisition would help boost Google Cloud’s analytics capabilities, saying: “Google Cloud is being used by many of the leading organizations in the world for analytics and decision-making. The combination of Google Cloud and Looker will enable customers to harness data in new ways to drive their digital transformation. We remain committed to our multi-cloud strategy and will retain and expand Looker’s capabilities to analyze data across Clouds.”

Looker was founded back in 2011 and the company’s platform helps organizations visualize and make sense of their data by tapping into a number of sources including AWS Redshift, Google BigQuery, Snowflake and MySQL.

The business intelligence and big data analytics company has raised almost $300 million since its creation and Alphabet’s investment unit Capital G even led its series D funding back in 2017. Google and Looker’s shared customers, investment connections and existing cloud partnership all help to make the deal a natural fit for both companies.

The deal is also Kurian’s first cloud acquisition since he replaced Diane Green as CEO back in November. However, the Looker acquisition is just the latest in a recent series of cloud announcements from Google aimed at helping the company try to catch up with AWS in the cloud space.