TLDR: Redpanda Data Inc. has announced the acquisition of Oxla, a Structured Query Language (SQL) engine startup, and simultaneously launched its new Agentic Data Plane (ADP). This strategic move aims to provide a robust, governed data access layer for enterprises deploying artificial intelligence (AI) agents, addressing regulatory challenges and ensuring secure, traceable, and observable AI operations.
Real-time data streaming company Redpanda Data Inc. has made a significant stride in the artificial intelligence landscape with the acquisition of Oxla sp. z o.o., a Structured Query Language (SQL) engine startup, and the simultaneous launch of its innovative Agentic Data Plane (ADP). Announced on October 28, 2025, this dual development positions Redpanda to tackle the complex regulatory and governance challenges associated with streaming information to AI agents within enterprise environments.
The Agentic Data Plane is designed to serve as a reliable and secure data access layer, enabling enterprises to build AI agents that are traceable, observable, and governable. This is crucial for ensuring compliance and maintaining control over how AI agents interact with sensitive proprietary data. Redpanda co-founder and Chief Executive Alex Gallego emphasized the necessity of the ADP, stating, “AI agents have made initial inroads to the private networks of the modern enterprise.” He further added, “The agentic data plane provides the very necessary MCP-aware connectivity, access control and governance required for enterprise AI. With the acquisition of Oxla, we can now give agents a standard SQL endpoint to query data in motion or at rest.”
The acquisition of Polish startup Oxla is a cornerstone of this new offering. Oxla’s technology, particularly its standard SQL query engine and database tools, is integrated into the ADP to provide essential governance capabilities. Oxla is known for its self-hosted data warehouse platform, optimized for large-scale, low-latency analytics with efficiency in compute, memory, and storage, allowing companies to manage growing datasets predictably. Stephen Catanzano, an analyst at Omdia, highlighted the strategic fit, noting, “The Oxla acquisition appears to be a good fit and delivers Redpanda with a critical missing piece around standard SQL capabilities that agents need to query both streaming and at-rest data.” He added that this acquisition transforms Redpanda into a “comprehensive platform for agentic AI rather than a point solution.”
The ADP combines Redpanda’s existing battle-tested data stack and connectivity suite with Oxla’s SQL engine. It supports open-source standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Apache Iceberg data table format, alongside the newly integrated SQL capabilities. The ADP’s initial phase, focusing on connectivity, is now generally available, with observability and transformation capabilities slated for general availability in early 2026. SQL querying will enter beta testing later in 2026.
Redpanda, backed by over $160 million in funding from investors including Alphabet Inc.’s GV fund, has built a reputation for its namesake platform that facilitates real-time data movement between applications, claiming superior speed compared to rivals like Apache Kafka due to its C++ implementation. With the Agentic Data Plane, Redpanda is expanding beyond its core streaming capabilities to offer a complete environment for training and managing AI applications, addressing a critical gap in enterprise AI deployment by providing unified control, monitoring, and governance for AI agents.
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This move comes as the industry grapples with the implications of generative AI, which has spurred significant interest in AI development. The ADP aims to ensure that as AI agents become more autonomous in reading, writing, and processing enterprise data and interacting with large language models, they do so in a compliant and controlled manner.
