Chainguard triples valuation to $1.12 billion in less than one year, as its
secure-by-design, minimalist approach to container images becomes a
de facto technology for locking down open source software in the
modern software supply chain
KIRKLAND, Wash., July 25,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Chainguard, the safe source
for open source, today announced it has completed a $140 million Series C round of funding led by
Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and IVP, bringing
the company's total funding raised to $256
million. Existing investors, including Amplify, Mantis VC,
Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital also participated in the
round.
Demand for the company's Chainguard Images solution continues to
see rapid adoption among enterprises, with a more than 5X increase
in its customer base year-over-year and an over 175 percent
increase in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in the first six months
of the fiscal year. The company has more than doubled its employee
base over the past year to support this demand and bring its
Chainguard Images product to as many customers as possible.
Now valued at $1.12 billion, the
company is making investments to expand its Chainguard Images
product offering to safeguard emerging technologies like AI
workloads. The company is also expanding go-to-market operations in
international markets and growing its Federal business to service
more customers looking to meet compliance requirements for software
security.
"We've shown our customers and the industry there is a better
way to align developer and security priorities when it comes to
adopting open source software securely. The complexity and scale of
vulnerability management has outgrown the capabilities of most
organizations to manage on their own," said Dan Lorenc, CEO and Co-Founder of
Chainguard. "Chainguard has brought an essential layer of
security to the open source consumption model, which was already
strained by new attack types like Log4j and XZ Utils, and is under
even greater pressure from a combination of rapidly adopted AI
workloads and intensifying regulatory requirements. We empower
developers to focus on doing what they do best-- writing great
software--with a newfound confidence they are building upon a
secure, vulnerability-free foundation, where starting left, not
shifting left is the only way."
"Chainguard has reimagined software delivery and consumption and
is the safe source for open source software," said Sai
Senthilkumar, Partner at Redpoint Ventures. "Chainguard Images
have extremely strong product market fit and give developers and
security teams peace of mind. Chainguard is one of the fastest
growing enterprise businesses we have seen in the past several
years and we could not be more thrilled to join on this mission to
build the industry standard for software security."
Today, the company is also announcing the general availability
of Chainguard AI Images, a growing suite of CPU and GPU-enabled
container images, including Pytorch, Conda and Kafka, that are
hardened, minimal, and optimized for efficient software
development. The solution also offers optimized GPU-enabled images,
like PyTorch, with dependencies including drivers and libraries to
secure the deployment and management of GPU Accelerated AI
applications with low-to-zero vulnerabilities and hardened
configurations.
Chainguard's secure container images are used by the world's
most advanced technology companies like Anduril, Canva, Hewlett
Packard Enterprise, Snowflake and leading cybersecurity companies
Checkmarx, Cyera, and Wiz to tackle vulnerability remediation and
lock down their software supply chains. Chainguard is also
committed to providing secure, compliant solutions tailored for
federal and regulated industries, working with customers and
strategic partners like ILS to enable users to access a custom
registry of secure container images on U.S. federal government
networks.
In addition to investments in product and go-to-market, the
company continues to add to its leadership ranks. Joining the team
are its first Vice President of People, Kendra Mitchell, former Chief People Officer at
Chief. Caitlin Quinlan also joined
as the company's Senior Vice President of Go-to-Market Strategy
following general management and operations leadership roles at
Gainsight, Mixpanel, and MongoDB. The company also partnered with
Kerrest & Company, who will provide advisory services to help
the company scale alongside their investment in the round.
Chainguard will be at Black Hat USA 2024 in Las
Vegas, Nevada, August 3-9.
Visit booth #775 on the show flow or book a meeting
with Chainguard onsite to learn more about the company's Chainguard
Images offering.
Supporting Quotes:
"Chainguard has built a one of a kind product that turns the
notion of securing software on its head," said Arsham Memarzadeh, Partner at Lightspeed Venture
Partners. "The team has emerged as the enterprise developer
standard for open source software and we at Lightspeed are excited
to partner with them on their incredible growth trajectory."
"Enterprises are turning to Chainguard and realizing a clear ROI
right away by eliminating the resource burden of patching software
vulnerabilities and meeting compliance standards. Otherwise, they
risk becoming the next company headline for a preventable security
breach," said Tom Loverro,
General Partner at IVP. "Chainguard will become the default
option for developers as they build software and a single
destination for companies to go to for images they know are
secure."
"As the Vice-Chairman & Co-Founder of a Global 2000
technology company, I recognize the immense value that Chainguard
is bringing to the software ecosystem," said Frederic Kerrest,
CEO & Founder, Kerrest & Company. "Through Kerrest
& Company we are excited to work with the company's leadership
team to help further its mission to be the safe source for open
source. Our investment underscores our confidence in their vision
and our commitment to fostering a safer and more resilient
technological ecosystem for all."
"Anduril is redefining what defense contractors look like, in
part by implementing commercial technology and moving at the pace
of relevance." said Joe
McCaffrey, CISO at Anduril. "Doing so while remaining
compliant in a highly regulated environment is extremely
challenging. Chainguard Images help us deliver on this mission with
hardened container images that lead the market in secure software
development."
"Our partnership with Chainguard enabled us to meet or exceed
the rigorous standards required in highly regulated industries and
government sectors where we serve our customers," said
Andrew Cunje, Chief Information
Security Officer at Appian. "By reducing the burden of patching
and hardening associated with managing supply chain risks, we can
increase our developers' focus on driving innovation in support of
our customers' missions."
"On our mission to empower the largest enterprises to secure
their applications from code to cloud, adopting Chainguard's
secure container images has been a game-changer," said
Sandeep Johri, CEO at
Checkmarx. "With Chainguard, we're able to meet and maintain
stringent compliance requirements for software vulnerabilities, and
their Images product seamlessly integrates within our developer
workflows, delivering instant results, and secure outcomes."
"Building the world's leading enterprise data security solution
means we need to be at the cutting edge of secure innovation," said
Shalom Yerushalmy, Head of DevOps Engineering at Cyera.
"Chainguard's secure container images solution is transforming
Cyera's approach to eliminating vulnerabilities, freeing up our
developers' time to focus on innovation and the most pressing
security priorities for our customers."
"At Trustpilot, we regard information security as an integral
part of running an online review community," said Stu Hirst, CISO at Trustpilot. "Chainguard's
secure container images solution is transforming Trustpilot's
approach to eliminating vulnerabilities, freeing up our developers'
time to focus on innovation and delivering new features that build
trust, grow, and improve the platform for users and customers."
About Chainguard
Chainguard is the secure foundation for building with open
source software. The company's portfolio of secure, minimal
container images helps organizations embrace a new culture of
software development where starting left with security, not
shifting left, is the reality. Its customers include Fortune 500
enterprises and leading technology and security companies,
including Anduril, Canva, Domino Data Lab, Checkmarx, HPE, GitLab,
Snowflake, and Wiz. Chainguard is venture-backed by leading
investors, including Amplify, IVP, Lightspeed Venture Partners,
Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia, and Spark Capital. For more
information, please visit: https://www.chainguard.dev/.
Media Contact
Sarah O'Rourke
sorourke@chainguard.dev
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