On Tuesday, Milan-based Akamas, a company specialising in AI-driven cloud optimisation, announced that it has secured $10M (approximately €9.7M) in its first institutional funding led by United Ventures.
Based out of Milan, United Ventures is one of Italy’s largest venture capital firms that supports entrepreneurs ready to develop innovative products and technologies.
The VC provides support and funding across all the stages of new ventures, by investing in seed stage, early stage, and growth capital, with both startup companies and established ones launching onto new markets.
Fabio Pirovano, Partner at United Ventures says, “Akamas’ innovative approach to simplifying cloud and Kubernetes optimization, coupled with its impressive team and vision, positions it as a game-changer in the global tech landscape.”
Fund utilisation
The Italian company will use the funds to support its expansion into the North American market, accelerate product development, and strengthen its position as a leader in full-stack optimisation for cloud and Kubernetes environments.
Akamas will use the funding to grow its team from 10 to 35 employees in the first year, focusing on engineering, sales, and marketing roles in Italy and the US.
Explaining the challenges involved in US expansion to Silicon Canals, Luca Forni, CEO and co-founder of Akamas says, “The US market is highly competitive, with well-established cloud management and FinOps players. However, Akamas applies a unique patented approach: we don’t just optimise costs—we optimise applications and infrastructure together, ensuring companies get maximum systems efficiency, resulting in better performance and cost reduction.”
Additionally, the company plans to establish its first US office in Boston to combat brand awareness challenges.
The funding comes at a time for Akamas, which has already signed its first seven-figure contract and gained traction with customers across North America.
Additionally, the company is planning to launch new features with the latest investment.
It will include:
- Kubernetes Insight (currently in beta) to improve Kubernetes environments
- SaaS version of the Akamas platform
- Integrations with key cloud providers and monitoring tools like AWS, Dynatrace, Datadog, Grafana Labs, and Google Cloud.
Birth of Akamas
Founded in 2019 as a spin-off from Moviri, Akamas is an AI-driven platform for cloud and application optimisation.
“Our goal was to solve a fundamental challenge that enterprises face in the cloud era: how to balance cost, performance, and reliability in increasingly complex cloud and Kubernetes environments,” says Luca Forni.
“We saw that traditional optimisation approaches were either manual, time-consuming, or focused solely on cost reduction at the expense of performance. Akamas was built to change that by introducing an AI-driven, autonomous & full-stack optimisation approach that considers the entire technology stack, from infrastructure applications,” adds Forni.
Akamas simplified
Akamas helps businesses automatically optimise their cloud and Kubernetes environments using AI.
“Think of it as a smart assistant for cloud performance: instead of IT teams manually tweaking cloud settings to improve cost or performance, Akamas’ AI continuously analyses workloads and applies the best configurations. This ensures that companies get the best performance and reliability without overspending on cloud resources,” explains Forni.
“Application-aware” optimisation approach
Akamas’ USP lies in its “application-aware” optimisation approach. It ensures that cost savings do not come at the expense of application performance or reliability and vice versa.
“Most FinOps tools and open-source solutions focus on cost reduction, focusing solely on infrastructure or price metrics at the expense of applications’ performance and reliability.
Akamas takes a fundamentally different approach: we optimise the entire application stack, ensuring businesses don’t just save money but also improve performance and stability,” explains Forni.
Additionally, the Akamas AI-powered engine does not rely only on static rules or historical data.
It learns and adapts continuously, adjusting settings based on real-time workloads.
“This goes beyond what any traditional tool or manual tuning can achieve, allowing organisations to scale more efficiently,” he adds.
Measuring success beyond cost
Akamas is changing the way companies optimise their cloud infrastructure and applications.
The company has patented technology that helps organisations improve the performance of their cloud and Kubernetes environments by focusing on how applications and infrastructure work together.
Besides cost reduction, the company measures its impact across multiple dimensions, including:
- Performance Gains: Faster application response times and improved system reliability, as measured by observability tools.
- Operational Efficiency: Dramatic reduction in manual tuning efforts for IT teams, as certified by our current customers.
- Scalability: Enabling businesses to scale applications seamlessly, thanks to an AI-driven approach, instead of static threshold or basic statistical models, guaranteeing the maximum system efficiency.
- SLO Adherence: Ensuring that cloud and Kubernetes environments meet service level objectives agreements without over-provisioning resources.
“Success is not just about reducing cloud costs—it’s about delivering tangible improvements in performance, reliability, and efficiency. Many of our customers see improvements beyond cost, such as better user experiences, fewer outages, and more predictable cloud spending,” explains Forni.
Addressing security concerns
Akamas addresses security concerns through several key measures. It includes:
- Data Privacy: Minimize data exposure and comply with industry standards such as GDPR, SOC 2, etc.
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Ensures that only authorised personnel can make optimisation changes.
- Integration with Secure Enterprise Environments: Akamas works with leading cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, ensuring seamless compliance with their security frameworks.
Additionally, Akamas offers “on-premises” solutions, allowing customers to apply their security standards during the optimisation process.
“Cloud optimisation is no longer just about saving costs,” Stefano Doni, CTO, and Co-founder of Akamas explains. “It’s about enabling businesses to scale efficiently, deliver exceptional user experiences, and maintain reliability. At Akamas, we are redefining the possibilities for cloud and Kubernetes environments.”
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