Why we invested in CAST AI, a Kubernetes optimization platform
A strong go-to-market strategy and an experienced team have positioned CAST AI as a leading solution provider for the rapidly growing Kubernetes container marketplace.
CAST AI is developing an end-to-end lifecycle management platform for Kubernetes that enables customers to optimize containers on AWS, Google, and Azure. The company is going to market with a self-serve, AI-driven cost optimization solution for Kubernetes. CAST AI’s frictionless onboarding process enables developers to immediately reduce their infrastructure costs by 50% to 90%. It is currently available for AWS EKS, Google GKE, Azure AKS, and Kubernetes Operations with Kops (KOPS).
CAST AI accomplishes these cost savings through a variety of machine learning approaches such as selecting the most optimum instance, rightsizing the instances, then providing real time elastic compute that scales based on load. The platform features automated real-time scaling and configuration of compute, cross-cloud arbitrage, disaster prevention, and devops abstraction. Cost optimization is just the start for CAST AI. The company’s long-term vision is to be the de facto container lifecycle management solution for everything from storage and backup to data migration and security.
Samsung Next joined Cota Capital, the lead investor, in a $10 million Series A round. This follows an earlier round in which the company raised $8 million. We think CAST AI is well-positioned to grow as more enterprises shift to the use of Kubernetes and microservices architecture to support modern applications at scale
What makes CAST AI unique is that they have built a system that automates the creation of logical Kubernetes clusters and maps them to physical clusters. Apart from Kubernetes optimization for EKS, GKE, and AKS, the company also built a unique system for anyone looking to deploy their applications to a multi-cloud environment.
The company’s co-founders are serial entrepreneurs with deep expertise in cloud data centers. Their previous endeavors have resulted in exits to Oracle and Google.
Yuri Frayman, CEO, previously launched Zenedge, acquired by Oracle; Frayman Group, acquired by IntApp; and Viewdle, acquired by Google. Laurent Gil, CPO, was a co-founder of Zenedge and Viewdle. Leon Kuperman, CTO, was previously vice president, security at Oracle, and a co-founder of Zenedge
CAST AI also aligns nicely with Samsung’s ecosystem. Open source cloud-native computing has reached the infrastructure edge, which will enable billions of devices to make compute, security, networking, and storage more efficient. Containerized application deployments become more complex when moving to the edge. CAST AI’s container lifecycle management platform reduces devops complexity, and facilitates the deployment of the kind of large scale applications that Samsung both operates and sells.
We think CAST AI will grow rapidly with its end-to-end solution for containerized applications. The company’s technology is solid, and the team has proven they have the expertise and management skills to cost-effectively build market share and scale.
Andy Duong is an Investor at Samsung Next. Samsung Next's investment strategy is limited to its own views and does not reflect the vision or strategy of any other Samsung business unit, including, but not limited, to Samsung Electronics.
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