An AI startup called Optimaze has raised US$3 million in pre-seed funding to help companies save money on unnecessary cloud expenses.
The funding round was led by Arconic and The Innovation Club. Based in Sydney, Optimaze is currently testing its software privately and has a waitlist for early access.
The new funding will help Optimaze grow its engineering team, speed up product development, and build partnerships with cloud providers — starting with AWS.
Cloud spending in Australia is expected to reach $15 billion next year, but according to Gartner, around 30% of that money is wasted.
But Optimaze founders Ralf Capel and Dawshiek Yogathasar believe the actual waste and inefficiency are much higher than $4.5 billion.
They also point out that the environmental impact of this wasted cloud usage makes the problem even bigger.
“Cloud waste has spiralled out of control, costing businesses billions and demanding roughly 1% of global energy consumption,” Capel said.
“Instead of addressing the root cause, today companies are pouring more money into expanding cloud infrastructure and financial operations, making the problem exponentially worse.
Cape said the AI-augmented platform improves enterprises’ ability to identify and act on cloud waste at scale and quantifies the financial impact in real-time.
“We have seen first hand how cloud literate companies reduce their on demand cloud use by well over 30% through clever optimisation,” he said.
Cofounder Dawshiek Yogathasar said they aim to cut down manual work — like tagging resources — by up to 90%, while also helping to reduce environmental impact.
“The energy waste in Australian cloud environments is already staggering, and as AI workloads intensify, energy consumption is becoming a major bottleneck,” he said.
Arconic’s Anthony Potts said that cloud spend is already the largest controllable cost after payroll.
“It’s exploding as every business from SMBs to corporates deploy AI-heavy GPU workloads,” he said.
“Businesses will increasingly need to quantify which workloads create the most value. Optimaze’s AI agents deliver that insight in real time and automates fixes, setting a new standard for financial and environmental accountability in the cloud.”
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