PICO Venture Partners invests in visionary Israeli entrepreneurs building future-defining technologies. These entrepreneurs are relentless in their quest to transform existing markets, industries, business processes, and consumer experiences.  Led by former founders and executives with an execution-driven ethos, PICO leverages its domain expertise, advisor network, collaborative workspaces, and go-to-market channels to support its portfolio companies in every aspect of their growth trajectory. Through close partnership and open dialogue, PICO offers founders the unwavering loyalty they need to succeed.  PICO-backed companies include Vroom (Nasdaq VRM), Spot.io (acquired by NetApp), Gloat, AutoLeadStar, Ment.io, Niio, and others.

PICO Venture Partners

The Microsoft ScaleUp program is designed for Series A startups and puts its founders on an accelerated path to build, grow and connect.  Build: hands-on guidance and resources you need to build a sustainable foundation to scale your business Grow: innovate and grow on the most trusted cloud and receive access to technical support and expertise Connect: tap into an entirely new customer base of over 120M Microsoft customers around the world Eligible startups partake in the immersive program at one of our eight global locations followed by ongoing support from a dedicated team of success managers. A streamlined path to scale that only Microsoft can provide.

Microsoft ScaleUp Tel Aviv

Springtide Ventures is a venture capital company that helps to bring start-ups to life, materialize their visions, and global ambitions. It has a relentless drive for success, overcoming challenges and learning while, above all, preserving its integrity and sticking rigorously to ethical norms. Naturally, they value such qualities in entrepreneurs and teams we support as they take on the challenges of building their next enterprise. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Springtide Ventures

Intel Capital invests in innovative startups targeting cloud and AI infrastructure, edge, 5G, autonomy, cybersecurity, client & gaming, enterprise applications, silicon design and manufacturing, and a wide range of other disruptive technologies. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested US$12.9 billion in more than 1,582 companies worldwide. Intel Capital has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Intel Capital

Vertex Ventures is a global network of operator-investors who manage portfolios in the U.S., China, Israel, India and Southeast Asia. The firm is a trusted partner to some of the world’s most innovative entrepreneurs, supporting them with unmatched operating experience and deep access to the capital, talent, partners and customers they need to build truly global businesses.

Vertex Ventures

Vertex Ventures Israel is one of Israel’s first and most successful venture capital firms, with over $1.4B raised to its funds. We are a generalist fund, investing cross-verticals, from Seed to B. Don't hesitate to reach out, we pride ourselves on being accessible. We've worked with some of the most iconic startups to come out of Israel, including SolarEdge, Waze, CyberArk, Argus, Dynamic Yield, Spot and many others, and we are proud to have a portfolio of over 50 promising companies, including Axonius, Yotpo, Ownbackup and Verbit.  Our experience and diverse backgrounds support our founders in their journey to grow their companies and become industry leaders.

Vertex Ventures Israel

Highland Europe invests in rapidly growing European internet, mobile, and software companies that address large market opportunities and have over €10 million in annualized revenues. They can provide acquisition finance or lead secondary transactions as well as making primary investments. Their capital enables management teams to accelerate growth and build a lasting, valuable business. Highland Europe was launched in 2012 and closely collaborates with Highland Capital Partners, an independent global venture capital firm with a twenty-seven year investment experience and offices in Boston and Palo Alto.

Highland Europe

Sand Hill Angels is a group of Silicon Valley angel investors passionate about helping entrepreneurs get to the next level. What makes the group unique is the collective experience of its members building and scaling deep technology companies. The group has been around for more than two decades. Sand Hill Angels works openly and collaboratively with venture capital funds, other angel organizations, and the Bay Area ecosystem that fosters the growth of technology startups.  For additional information, visit www.sandhillangels.com or follow @SandHillAngels.com on Twitter.

Sand Hill Angels

Leaders Fund is a venture capital firm that invests in early stage companies taking advantage of the shift to cloud, mobile, and machine learning in the enterprise software sector. The firm was founded by an experienced team of operators who have founded and scaled multiple enterprise software companies, achieving successful public and private exits. It is based in Toronto, Ontario with an office in Atlanta, Georgia.  Our fund’s evergreen, flexible structure enables us to partner creatively with other investors while ensuring deep alignment with our portfolio companies on deal structure, growth strategy and long-term goals.

Leaders Fund

Spot

Spot offers cloud service and management optimization for SaaS companies, executed by AI software that among other things predicts price changes, essentially helping companies find cheap cloud infrastructures (called spot instances) and manage them.

<div>Spot is a provider of continuous cloud cost-optimization and management solutions.</div>

Building future-ready applications in the cloud

Cloud-native Tech

Robot Spot configured to find and stun weeds using a blowtorch

NetApp

Spot by NetApp leverages analytics and machine learning to optimize resource use in real time by deploying performance and capacity required by applications at the lowest cost. This lets customers save on their compute and storage infrastructure expenses.

Platforms to make the most of cloud infrastructure

Cloud Optimization Tools

Tools that improve performance per spend by offering visibility and insights as well as leveraging pricing models such as reserved and spot instances. These also provide financial guardrails to enforce budgetary limits and other cost-saving opportunity recommendations

<div>
 
 Spot is a provider of continuous cloud cost-optimization and management solutions.
 
 
 Spot analyzes real-time data and usage patterns to identify opportunities for cost savings and performance improvements across cloud resources. By automatically optimizing the allocation of cloud instances and workloads, Spot enables businesses to reduce costs while maintaining optimal performance.
 
 
 In addition, Spot offers real-time cost visibility and reporting. Its intuitive dashboard provides insights into its cloud spending, usage patterns, and cost allocation.&nbsp;
 
 
 Spot's sales model revolves around offering subscription-based access to its platform.
 
 
 In 2020, Spot was acquired by NetApp for USD 450 million. However, Spot continues to operate as a separate entity.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Spot serves a broad range of customers across many industries. Notable customers include Zalando, NetApp, Freshworks, Demandbase, Duolingo, and Finova.
 
 
 Spot also integrates with major cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 As of June 2023, Spot&rsquo;s latest fundraising was in 2018 from a USD 35 million Series B round led by Intel Capital and Vertex Ventures.
 
 
 
</div>

SingleStore is a company that provides a distributed SQL database platform for real-time analytics and operational applications.SingleStore’s platform combines the scalability of NoSQL with the querying capabilities of SQL. It enables organizations to ingest, process, and analyze large volumes of data in real-time, making it ideal for applications that require fast and accurate data processing. SingleStore solves the problem of handling massive amounts of data and delivering real-time insights for use cases such as real-time analytics, operational analytics, and high-velocity transactional applications.SingleStore's competitive advantage is its ability to handle analytical and transactional workloads in a single platform. It allows businesses to consolidate their data infrastructure, simplifying management and reducing operational costs.SingleStore operates with a sales model that includes direct sales and partnerships with technology and solution providers. It offers different pricing and licensing options tailored to the needs of its customers, including subscription-based models.Key customers and partnershipsSingleStore serves some of the largest tech and non-tech enterprises across various industries, including Comcast, Cisco, Akamai Technologies, Fiverr, Goldman Sachs, Sony, Siemens, Hulu.SingleStore partners with all major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud) and has technology partnerships with Dell, Red Hat, Intel, HP Enterprise, and Looker.Funding and financialsAs of June 2023, SingleStore’s latest fundraising was in October 2022 from a USD 30 million Series F round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Prosperity7 Ventures. The funds were slated to fuel SingleStore’s growth and various strategic initiatives.

SingleStore

Platform9 is an open-distributed cloud company that offers solutions for managing hybrid clouds, Kubernetes, and more. Platform9 offers several products and solutions, including Managed Kubernetes, Managed OpenStack, and Managed Bare Metal.Managed Kubernetes allows businesses to deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters across any infrastructure, while Managed OpenStack offers a simplified way to deploy and manage private clouds. Managed Bare Metal enables businesses to run Kubernetes, OpenStack, and other workloads on dedicated hardware with bare-metal performance.Platform9 claims to deliver a seamless Kubernetes experience across any infrastructure. Platform9's SaaS-managed Kubernetes solution offers a single view to manage Kubernetes clusters running on any cloud or on-premises infrastructure, including bare metal servers, vSphere, and public clouds such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Azure, providing customers with a unified Kubernetes experience. In addition, Platform9 offers automated security patching, on-demand upgrades, self-healing clusters, multi-version support, and audit logging.Platform9 has a subscription-based sales model. It offers its services on a pay-as-you-go basis, with pricing based on the number of managed nodes or instances, with optional add-ons for additional features and support.Key customers and partnershipsPlatform9 targets enterprise customers who run and manage Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies on distributed cloud services, whether on-premises or in the public cloud. Its customers typically include large organizations with complex IT environments, such as financial services, healthcare, technology, and retail companies.As of mid-2022, Platform9 catered to more than 60 enterprise clients and powered 40,000 nodes across private, public, and edge clouds.Platform9 has partnerships with various cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Additionally, in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32723">August 2024</a>, Platform9 partnered with Fairwinds, a managed Kubernetes-as-a-Service provider, to tackle issues related to Kubernetes over-provisioning and cost management costs in public cloud deployments.

Platform9

<div>
 
 Mirantis is a technology company that provides cloud-native software and services to help businesses modernize their IT infrastructure.&nbsp;
 
 
 Mirantis specializes in open-source software, focusing on Kubernetes, OpenStack, and related technologies. Its core offering is the Mirantis Cloud Native Platform, a managed Kubernetes service that provides a complete set of tools for deploying and managing containerized applications. The platform helps organizations adopt and scale Kubernetes quickly and easily, with features like automated provisioning, integrated monitoring, and self-service access to resources. Mirantis also offers professional services including consulting, training, and support for Kubernetes, OpenStack, and related technologies.
 
 
 Mirantis sells its products and services through a subscription-based model. Customers can choose from various annual subscription plans, depending on their needs.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Mirantis focuses on enterprise customers who deploy and manage large-scale private clouds. Some of its high-profile customers include Volkswagen Group, Soci&eacute;t&eacute; G&eacute;n&eacute;rale, S&amp;P Global, Paypal, Volkswagen, and GSK.
 
 
 Mirantis also has technology partnerships with several companies, including Arm, Cisco, Entrust, and Fujitsu, and hardware vendors like Dell EMC, Intel, and Supermicro.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22579">
 October 2023
 </a>
 , specialty finance company Horizon Technology Finance provided a USD 35 million venture loan facility to Mirantis, Inc. A sum of USD 20 million was initially funded.
 
</div>

Mirantis

Rafay Systems is a cloud-native platform that automates deployment, life cycle management, and scaling of containerized applications across all cloud infrastructure.Rafay's platform provides enterprises with the tools to deploy and manage containerized applications, microservices, and serverless functions in a scalable and efficient way. The platform provides features including multi-cluster management, automated workload scaling, automated application recovery, and granular application-level access controls. Rafay also provides a Kubernetes-native API gateway that simplifies managing and securing microservices, and includes capabilities to include support for graphics processing unit-based workloads.Additionally, Rafay Systems offers an AI suite to simplify AI application development and deployment. This suite includes pre-configured LLMOps Playgrounds, a turnkey MLOps pipeline, central management of LLM providers and prompts, and AI data source integrations and governance. It also offers a cost optimization suite to help IT professionals manage Kubernetes expenses with dynamic cluster scaling, auto-rightsizing, policy application, and simplified infrastructure.Rafay has a subscription-based sales model and offers its platform as a service. The pricing is based on the number of clusters, nodes per cluster, and the amount of data transferred.Key customers and partnershipsRafay’s target customer segments are enterprises, service providers, and software vendors. Some of its notable clients include Verizon, Equinix, Samsung, Moneygram, and the US Air Force.In 2022, Rafay launched its Technical Alliance Program (TAP), which brings together technology and solutions providers to develop joint solutions to simplify and streamline Kubernetes management and operations. Partners of the program include GitLab Inc., F5 NGINX, MinIO, New Relic, and Sysdig. Meanwhile, Rafay’s public cloud and managed Kubernetes partners include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Oracle.

Rafay Systems

Docker, Inc. is a technology company developing productivity tools centered around Docker, a software container platform that automates the deployment of code inside containers.Docker, Inc's major commercial products include Docker Hub, a central repository for containers, and Docker Desktop, a GUI application that enables Windows and Mac users to manage containers.Docker's ease of use, portability, resource efficiency, scalability, and strong ecosystem has made it a popular solution for deploying and managing applications in various environments.Docker has a subscription-based sales model. Docker also collaborates with various channel partners, including technology resellers, system integrators, and value-added distributors to expand its reach.Moreover, Docker has made several strategic acquisitions to enhance its capabilities: AtomicJar (2023), Nestybox (2022), SocketPlane (2015), and Tutum (2015), among others.Key customers and partnershipsAs of December 2022, the platform was used by more than 18 million developers. As of March 2022, the company served more than 56,000 commercial customers, including Adobe, Netflix, PayPal, Verizon, and Target.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27771">March 2024</a>, Docker expanded its partnership with Red Hat to integrate Testcontainers Cloud into the Red Hat OpenShift platform. This partnership aimed to streamline the process of building cloud-native applications and facilitate real-world testing using Docker containers.Funding and financialsIn March 2022, Docker raised USD 105 million in a Series C round led by Bain Capital Ventures at a valuation of USD 2.1 billion. The funds were to accelerate investments in its product and go-to-market initiatives, such as increasing investments in developer productivity, trusted content, and ecosystem partnerships and investing in new channels and geographies.Docker’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) was more than USD 50 million in 2021.

Docker

Vendors offering cloud-native infrastructure or provisioning, which is the first layer in the cloud-native landscape. It encompasses tools to create and harden the foundation of cloud-native apps.

Vendors offering execution environment (runtime) solutions. This encompasses everything a container needs to run in a cloud-native environment, including the code used to start a container.

Vendors offering solutions for application definition and development. This layer focuses on the tools that enable engineers to build cloud-native applications

Vendors offering orchestration and management solutions including tools to handle running and connecting cloud-native applications.

Vendors offering observability, including tools to understand a cloud system from its external outputs, measured by CPU time, memory, disk space, latency, errors, etc.

Vendors that bundle different tools from different layers together into a platform, solving a larger problem. These can include an orchestration tool, a container runtime, service discovery, networking, an API gateway, etc.

Provide tools to design and build applications for deployment and operation in cloud environments

Disruptors are using Generative AI for AI-based assistants and help-bots, while others provide the technology for developing and deploying Gen AI applications and models.

Spot

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