UPDATED 11:36 EDT / SEPTEMBER 13 2017

INFRA

Kubernetes creators raise $25M for their software container startup Heptio

Just over a year after launching, Heptio Inc. is already marking its second round of funding.

The Seattle-based startup today announced the completion of a $25 million investment led by early Amazon.com Inc. investor Madrona Venture Group. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel Partners chipped in as well. The capital infusion will fuel Heptio’s efforts to commercialize the open-source Kubernetes project, which occupies a specialized but important niche in the development ecosystem.

Craig McLuckie and Joe Beda, the startup’s co-founders, helped create the framework during their time at Google Inc. to ease the management of software containers. As the latter technology rose to become an increasingly popular means of deploying applications across different kinds of computer systems, so did the interest in Kubernetes increase. It’s is now the go-to tool for orchestrating “containerized” computing workloads.

Kubernetes provides automation features for handling the everyday tasks involved in running an application. The framework can be used to coordinate the containerized components that make up a workload, recover from outages and roll out changes.

Heptio has developed three open-source projects that expand upon Kubernetes’ capabilities. Two of them were launched just last month.

Sonobuoy, the first tool, lets developers run tests to ensure that their Kubernetes clusters work as expected. The other project, called Ark, makes it possible to create copies of a deployment that can be used for disaster recovery or testing. Heptio’s third open-source technology, ksonnet, aims to ease the task of configuring Kubernetes.

The startup’s investors are banking that it can tap into the framework’s popularity to monetize the rapid growth of containers. Heptio currently generates revenue by providing professional services such as training and support. As container adoption continues widening in the enterprise, so should the startup’s addressable market.

Heptio co-founder Craig McLuckie indicated in a blog post that the new capital will go toward expanding the startup’s professional services and software lineup. He wrote that the plan is to “significantly increase our level of investment in growing our team” as part of the push.

Heptio has raised $33.5 million in funding to date.

Image: Unsplash

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