Cloud observability startup Groundcover raises $100M in funding

Groundcover Inc., a startup with a platform for monitoring cloud environments, today announced that it has raised $100 million in funding.

One Peak led the Series C round. It was joined by Morgan Stanley, Zeev Ventures, Angular Ventures, Heavybit and Jibe. CTech reported that the deal values Groundcover at $500 million.

Many observability tools charge users based on the amount of telemetry they collect. That pricing model often leads companies to limit the number of workloads they monitor in the interest of lowering costs. For example, a software startup might decide not to monitor a development environment that doesn’t contain any sensitive data.

Troubleshooting an outage without telemetry about the affected workload can be challenging. Furthermore, visibility gaps make it more difficult to spot cyberattacks. According to Groundcover, its observability platform addresses those challenges with a pricing model that isn’t tied to the amount of data users ingest. That makes it possible to collect telemetry from low-priority workloads which would otherwise be too expensive to monitor.

Under the hood, Groundcover collects telemetry using a technology called eBPF. It’s a component of Linux, the operating system that powers most public cloud environments. 

The core components of Linux are stored in a module known as the operating system kernel. The kernel plays a role in practically every action that the applications running on top perform. As a result, it possesses detailed data about those applications. Groundcover uses eBPF to collect the observability data that the Linux kernel generates.

Turning the Linux kernel into an observability mechanism requires developers to extend it with custom code. Usually, the task is prohibitively complicated because operating system modifications often lead to reliability and cybersecurity issues. That’s where eBPF comes into the picture. It runs kernel extensions in an isolated sandbox that mitigates common reliability issues.

Groundcover says that its eBPF-powered telemetry collection sensor can be installed in a few minutes. Furthermore, developers don’t have to modify the applications they wish to monitor. Customers can optionally enrich their eBPF data using OpenTelemetry, a popular observability tool that does require code modifications.

“We offer full-fidelity telemetry, unsampled, across infrastructure, applications, and AI workloads, captured by an eBPF sensor with no code changes and no instrumentation,” Groundcover Chief Executive Officer Shahar Azulay (pictured, right, with Chief Technology Officer Yechezkel Rabinovich) wrote in a blog post. 

Groundcover’s platform can ingest telemetry data at a rate of several gigabytes per second. It collects logs, metrics and traces. The software organizes the data in a format that makes it simpler to determine which record describes what application.

Some observability platforms keep telemetry in a managed storage environment. By contrast, Groundcover enables customers to keep telemetry in their own public cloud deployments. The company says that its approach improves cybersecurity and creates opportunities to lower costs. In particular, customers can keep new logs in high-performance flash drives and move historical data to less expensive cold storage.

Groundcover says that its platform is used by more than 250 organizations. Several of those customers signed seven-figure deals with the software maker in the past year.

Groundcover will use much of its newly raised funding to accelerate its go-to-market efforts in North America. Additionally, the company plans to grow its international presence and enhance its partner program. Groundwork’s efforts in the latter area will place particular emphasis on joint sales initiatives with cloud providers.

Photo: Groundcover