Akamas secures €9.6 million to expand into the US and accelerate cloud optimisation

Akamas, a Milan-based startup specialising in AI-driven cloud optimisation, today announced it has raised €9.6 million in its first institutional funding round to open first U.S. office in Boston and scale its team. The investment, led by one of Italy’s largest venture capital firms, United Ventures, will support Akamas’ expansion into the North American market, […] The post Akamas secures €9.6 million to expand into the US and accelerate cloud optimisation appeared first on EU-Startups.

Feb 11, 2025 - 13:23

Akamas secures €9.6 million to expand into the US and accelerate cloud optimisation

Akamas, a Milan-based startup specialising in AI-driven cloud optimisation, today announced it has raised €9.6 million in its first institutional funding round to open first U.S. office in Boston and scale its team.

The investment, led by one of Italy’s largest venture capital firms, United Ventures, will support Akamas’ expansion into the North American market, accelerate product development, and bolster its position as a leader in full-stack optimisation for cloud and Kubernetes environments. Akama’s parent company Moviri group will maintain a strategic minority position while transitioning operational control.

The funding comes at a pivotal time for Akamas, which has already signed its first seven-figure contract and gained traction with customers across North America. The company plans to establish its first US office in Boston and scale its team significantly in both engineering and go-to-market functions.

“We are thrilled about today’s investment, and our entry into the US is a major milestone for Akamas,” said Luca Forni, CEO and Co-founder of Akamas. “The United States is home to some of the world’s largest cloud-driven organizations, and we are excited to bring our unique application-aware optimization technology to this dynamic market. United Ventures’ expertise in scaling SaaS and AI companies globally makes them the perfect partner as we expand our footprint and continue driving innovation.”

Founded in 2019 as a spin-off from Moviri by Luca Forni and Stefano Doni, Akamas is an AI-driven platform for cloud and application optimisation. Its technology enables organisations to achieve unmatched cost savings, reliability, and performance by optimising across the entire technology stack.

Akamas will also use the funding to grow from 10 to 35 employees in the first year, with a focus on engineering, sales, and marketing roles across Italy and the US and to launch new features. These will include Kubernetes Insight (now in beta) to simplify optimisation of Kubernetes environments, a SaaS version of the Akamas platform, and integrations with leading cloud providers and observability tools such as AWS, Dynatrace, and Datadog, Grafana Labs and Google Cloud.

Its platform has been applied across hundreds of Kubernetes clusters and thousands of cloud instances for customers spanning retail, financial services, travel, and telecommunications.

“We are proud to lead this round for Akamas, who are at the forefront of application-aware optimization technology,” said Fabio Pirovano, Partner at United Ventures. “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. We’re excited to support their expansion into North America and their continued growth as they redefine how organizations optimize performance, reliability, and costs at scale.”

According to Akamas, they operate in a space where the primary competitor is often the inertia of manual, reactive optimisation efforts. Its platform addresses limitations across five categories of optimisation tools, including Kubernetes management, FinOps platforms, and native cloud provider tools.

“Cloud optimization is no longer just about saving costs,” Stefano Doni, CTO and Co-founder of Akamas explained. “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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