Loft Labs ? Inventors of Virtual Kubernetes Clusters ? Raises $24 Million Series A

Creators of vCluster and DevPod, Loft Labs today announced $24 million Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures with participation from existing investors Fusion Fund, Surface Ventures, Emergent Ventures, and Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, with an additional angel investment from Kit Merker, one of the first product managers for Kubernetes at Google. The new round brings total financing for Loft, the leading provider of platform engineering building blocks, to $28.6 million.

Loft has experienced strong momentum and passed multiple milestones in the past twelve months, including: 4.6x ARR growth; vCluster surpassing 40 million image pulls; the introduction of vCluster Pro, the commercial edition of vCluster; and, the development and launch of DevPod, an open source project that allows engineers to codify reusable dev environments for any infrastructure. The company also announced integrations with Rancher, HashiCorp Vault, and Argo CD, and signed a number of new customers including CoreWeave, Outreach, Lintasarta, Aussie Broadband, as well as five Global Fortune 500 companies.

"Our growing customer base is using vCluster and DevPod to increase reliability, streamline engineering workflows, and lower costs," said Lukas Gentele, co-founder and CEO of Loft Labs. "Our focus has always been to create things for platform builders, and we are only at the beginning. Efficient Kubernetes multi-tenancy with vCluster and consistent dev environments with DevPod are just the first top-of-mind challenges we wanted to solve for platform teams. We see so many opportunities for additional next-generation building blocks for platform engineers, and we're excited to innovate in these areas. With Khosla Ventures as the first institutional investor in companies like Open AI and Gitlab, we are grateful to partner with a VC that truly understands our space and we also greatly appreciate the continued support and encouragement from our seed investors."

As Loft Labs sets its sights on further growth and innovation, the team has expanded its headcount by over 50% in the past 12 months. This strategic scaling most recently led the company to hire Denise Schannon as VP of Engineering, who brings a wealth of experience from her tenure as Senior Director of Engineering at SUSE and as one of the earliest employees at Rancher Labs. This move underscores Loft Labs' commitment to bolstering its leadership team with industry veterans capable of driving the company's vision forward.

Khosla Ventures' backing of Loft Labs is driven by the belief that enhancing software engineers' efficiency catalyzes further innovation and value creation. "Every new level of virtualization has historically created incredible value for enterprises and completely changed the way devs and ops teams deploy infrastructure," said Jon Chu, partner at Khosla Ventures. "Loft has created that next level of faster and simpler virtualization with vCluster, an open source virtualized k8s cluster that will finally deliver what was promised to us over a decade ago: portable, multi-cloud clusters that free enterprises from vendor lock-in."

Loft Labs delivers critical building blocks that let developers solve some of their hardest challenges. Some of these challenges include:

• Simplifying Complex AI Infrastructure Deployment: One of the most daunting challenges for developers working in AI and machine learning is the setup and management of complex infrastructures that require extensive compute resources. vCluster significantly reduces the complexity involved in spinning up and managing clusters of GPUs and CPUs. This solution not only cuts down the time and effort but also offers a unified interface for data management, streamlining the process of training and testing AI models.
• Streamlining Multi-Cloud Management: In today's cloud-centric world, managing applications across multiple cloud environments can become a logistical nightmare due to the manual configuration of infrastructure across different cloud providers. vCluster addresses this challenge by providing a singular interface that simplifies the deployment, management, and scaling of applications across various clouds, ensuring a consistent and seamless experience for end-users.
• Reducing Infrastructure Costs: The shift towards Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructures has been pivotal for many organizations seeking to optimize their operational costs. vCluster leverages this shift, offering a cost-effective solution that minimizes the need for expensive hardware and software. This directly impacts the bottom line by reducing the time and resources required to manage infrastructure, making it an invaluable tool for developers and platform engineers alike.
• Demystifying Kubernetes Management: Kubernetes has become the backbone of modern application deployment and management. However, its complexity can be a significant hurdle for developers. vCluster simplifies Kubernetes management by providing an intuitive, web-based interface that abstracts away the complexity, allowing developers to focus on their core competency: writing code. This not only enhances productivity but also accelerates the development cycle, making it easier for teams to innovate and bring their applications to market faster.

By tackling these challenges, Loft Labs empowers developers and platform engineers to overcome some of the most significant barriers to innovation and efficiency in today's technology landscape.

As Loft Labs embarks on this exciting new chapter, stakeholders and interested parties are encouraged to delve deeper into the company's journey and the transformative potential of its platform. For further insights into Loft Labs' vision, the challenges being tackled, and the future being built, the latest blog post from co-founder and CEO Lukas Gentele is now available on the company's website. Additionally, a series of exclusive video interviews with investors from Khosla Ventures, Fusion Fund, Berkeley SkyDeck and others offer a unique perspective on the investment and the groundbreaking impact of Loft Labs' innovations within the tech ecosystem. These resources provide a behind-the-scenes look at the passion, dedication, and strategic vision propelling Loft Labs forward.

About Loft Labs

Loft Labs is the leading provider of platform engineering building blocks. Loft Labs delivers Kubernetes-native tools, functionality and frameworks purpose-built for platform engineers to manage, activate and optimize their platform stack. Loft Labs empowers platform teams at 100+ enterprises globally to harmonize engineering velocity and operational stability, and to build and run digital platforms at scale. To learn more about Loft Labs, visit www.loft.sh.