Cloud computing startup Hive has completed a Series A round of funding with $13 million.
Hive is planning to use the funding to further its plans for a decentralized cloud, using an aggregation of individual devices' unused storage and computing.
The funding round was led by SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered, and was joined by participants including OneRagtime and other private backers.
Hive's plans for 'The Right Cloud' are hoped to help businesses plan more efficiently for cloud-related expenses, improve server autonomy, and reduce energy usage by spreading workloads over more separate devices.
“It could be one of these big bets that could really work, and if it works, [investors] want to be part of it,” Hive founder David Gurlé told Fortune. “The efficiency that we gained, the upcycling capability that we had, and the waste that we reduce from the 10 billion potentially available computers around the world is way too compelling to ignore.”
Hive described its goal as to "transform 70 percent of the world’s unused device capacity into a global supercomputer."
Hive's customers (aka 'Hivers') store on 'hiveDisk,' and in turn, contribute a segment of the unused capacity to Hive's network thus reducing subscription costs. Over the last six months, 25,00 users have joined from 147 countries. According to Hive, this means that other customers can use the extra computing capacity for workloads including GenAI and 3D modeling.
“Cloud technology has opened up horizons of innovation, but it also comes with challenges in terms of costs, security, data privacy, and environmental impact, heightened by the increasing demand for computing resources, especially for artificial intelligence,” said Stéphanie Hospital, founder & CEO at OneRagtime.
“Hive, with its pioneering approach to distributed cloud, makes cloud access more secure, affordable, and efficient for everyone, and enables the sharing of computational power resources. As an early investor and believer, OneRagtime is particularly excited to support Hive's vision and team.”
Hive is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The company launched with its seed funding round which raised €7m in 2022, led by Global Ventures and OneRagtime.
