ProsperOps Inc., a startup with a platform that helps companies reduce their public cloud expenses, today said it has secured a $72 million funding round to finance growth initiatives. 

The funding round, ProsperOps’ first since launching in 2018, was led by investment firm H.I.G. Growth Partners. A number of unnamed strategic investors participated as well.

ProsperOps provides a software platform that helps Amazon Web Services Inc. customers reduce their cloud infrastructure spending. According to the startup, its platform delivers cost savings by making efficient use of the discounts that AWS offers to its users. 

AWS enables companies to access significant discounts if they commit to using a cloud instance for a year or more. In some cases, the price reductions offered by the Amazon.com Inc. unit exceed 70%. In practice, however, the cost savings that customers realize are often lower because using AWS discounts effectively on a large scale can be challenging. 

If a company commits to renting a cloud instance for a year in order to receive a discount, but only uses the instance for six months, it incurs unnecessary costs. The bigger the purchase, the bigger the risk of cost overruns. As a result, companies often limit the amount of cloud infrastructure they buy in advance, which also limits the size of the discounts they receive from AWS.

ProsperOps’ platform promises to simplify that tradeoff. According to the startup, its platform automatically acquires AWS discounts and applies them to a company’s cloud environment in a way that maximizes savings while avoiding the risk of cost overruns. It monitors cloud environments for configuration changes and adjusts its discount strategy accordingly without the need for human input.

According to the company, three-quarters of companies realize cost savings of 20% or less using AWS discounts. ProsperOps claims that its platform delivers average savings of 40%. Since launch, it claims to have saved more than $334 million for its customers, which include Wix.com Ltd., Moveworks Inc. and other major tech firms. 

“Cloud waste is rampant and holistic optimization requires an automated approach,” said Chief Executive Officer Chris Cochran. “The scale and complexity of this problem necessitates an algorithmic rather than a human solution. We’ve been profitably growing the business by triple digits, and the backing from our investors enables us to fully pursue the market opportunity.”

ProsperOps will use the proceeds from its newly announced funding round to further expand its platform’s capabilities. As part of the effort, the company intends to add support for other public clouds besides AWS. It will grow its go-to-market teams in parallel to expand its customer base. 

Image: ProsperOps