Kubernetes application delivery platform startup Akuity Inc. said today it has closed on a $20 million Series A round of funding led by Lead Edge Capital and existing investor Decibel Partners.

Akuity is a startup building developer tools that aim to scale the open-source Argo Project, which makes it easier to build and run applications atop the container orchestration tool Kubernetes.

Argo enables organizations to build and run cloud-native applications and workflows on Kubernetes using GitOps. It does that by providing what it says is an easy way to combine three modes of computing — services, workflows and event-based — to create jobs and applications on Kubernetes.

There are four components to Argo. First is Argo Workflows, which is an open-source container-native workflow engine for orchestrating parallel jobs on Kubernetes. Argo Events is an events-based dependency manager that was created by BlackRock. There’s also Argo CD, which supports GitOps-based deployment of Kubernetes resource. And finally there’s Argo Rollouts, used to support “progressive delivery strategies” for applications.

Akuity’s co-founders — Chief Executive Hong Wang, ChieTechnology Officer Jesse Suen and Chief Architect Alexander Matyushentsev — created the Argo Project to help abstract away some of the operational complexities around how Kubernetes applications are managed, monitored and deployed. However, they felt that the project could benefit from having commercial backing with enterprise-level support.

To that end, Akuity provides what Wang says are “battle-tested patterns packaged into a solution that delivers the best possible developer experience.”

The company’s products include Akuity Platform, which is a fully managed DevOps platform powered by Argo that’s now available in a closed beta test, with general availability set for later in the year. Then there’s Akuity Enterprise, available now, which provides enterprise-grade support for all four Argo projects, plus other tools that promise to make it even more useful.

“The additional funds will enable us not only to launch the Akuity Platform but also make Argo even better,” Suen said. “Open source is in our DNA and we are 100% committed to making Argo the most successful project for Kubernetes.”

Akuity said the funds from today’s round will be used to scale up its team and contribute more toward the Argo Project community.

Lead Edge Capital’s partner Nimay Mehta said he was impressed by the rapid adoption of Argo by developers in the open-source software community. “Argo is purpose built to address the unique challenges faced when building and deploying Kubernetes applications,” he said. “As the co-creators of Argo, the Akuity team is uniquely positioned to give enterprises the solutions they need to deploy at scale.”

Image: Akuity