Chainguard revealed on Wednesday that it’s secured $356 million in a Series D funding round—co-led by newcomer Kleiner Perkins and repeat backer IVP—bringing its valuation to $3.5 billion.
Less than a year ago, Chainguard closed a $140 million Series C at a $1.12 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to $612 million.
Founded in 2021, Chainguard helps customers secure their “software supply chain,” the end‑to‑end pipeline that produces their software.
Chainguard helps companies secure their open-source software and manage container images, which is essential for cloud applications. Its 150+ customers include ANZ Bank, Canva, GitLab, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, VPBank, and Wiz.
“Open source is everywhere, and its security risks are too big to ignore,” said CEO and co-founder Dan Lorenc.
Lorenc clarified that open source isn’t insecure, but companies often lack the resources to patch bugs in code they didn’t write.
“Customers tell us they scan their systems and discover 16 million vulnerabilities in their open-source components,” he said. “Engineers focused on building products can’t—and shouldn’t have to—spend time fixing all that.”
Chainguard’s annual recurring revenue jumped 7× to $40 million in fiscal 2025, aiming to exceed $100 million before fiscal 2026.
“Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins, praised Chainguard’s rapid rise as the go-to source for trusted open-source software,” the company said.
Though legally headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, Chainguard is fully remote, has no offices, and employs over 350 people.
Dan Lorenc, a former Microsoft and Google engineer now living in Rhode Island, co-founded Chainguard with Ville Aikas, Matt Moore, and Scott Nichols (ex‑Google/VMware) in the Seattle area, plus Kim Lewandowski (ex‑Google) in the Bay Area. Nichols departed in 2022.
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