The growing need for trusted open source at scale

Open source software (OSS) makes up 90% of the code organisations use, enabling the applications and technologies these businesses rely on to deliver critical products and services. OSS has driven substantial innovation for industries globally; however, its ubiquity and use today make it a prime target for attackers. Even the smallest vulnerability can take down entire companies. As every organisation races to secure its software supply chain, the demand for trustworthy, production-ready open source has reached unprecedented levels. To meet this need, Chainguard delivers hardened, secure, and production-ready builds of all the open source software engineers rely on today.

“Open source powers the world, but the way it’s delivered and deployed often introduces risk. At Chainguard, we’re flipping that script: we guard open source from all the things that can go wrong with it, so engineering teams can build anything they want with it,” said Dan Lorenc, CEO and co-founder, Chainguard. “We’re building the best, trusted source for open source. With this strategic capital, we can accelerate the adoption of Chainguard across more companies, helping engineering teams build faster, stay compliant, and eliminate risk.”

“Chainguard is defining a new category at the heart of modern infrastructure: trusted open source software. By solving one of the most pressing challenges in software development and deployment, the company is setting a new standard for engineering teams,” said Pranav Singhvi, Managing Director and Co-Head of CVF. “Dan is a standout founder who has built the business with incredible unit economics and intelligent capital allocation decisions."

Fueling Chainguard’s next phase of go-to-market growth

Given Chainguard’s strong unit economics, the company will use this balance sheet from General Catalyst to invest in and accelerate its go-to-market scale while preserving equity dollars for investments into product, engineering and additional strategic long-term value creation. This approach enhances the company’s financial profile, supports disciplined growth, and positions Chainguard to capture a rapidly expanding market opportunity as trusted open source becomes mission-critical infrastructure for global enterprises.

“This growth capital reflects the strength of Chainguard’s business, and how we’re scaling rapidly, operating with discipline, and planning for the long term,” said Eyal Bar, Chief Financial Officer at Chainguard. “Our partnership with General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF) is an important part of that strategy: it enables us to scale go-to-market investment without diluting ownership or slowing innovation. This structure allows our commercial motion to fund its own growth while giving us the flexibility to double down on product and engineering – where our differentiation lies, and build the operational scale and financial profile required for the next stage of growth.”

Building on continued momentum

As Chainguard scales to meet customer demand, the company has recently reached numerous milestones, including:

•             Launching Chainguard Libraries for JavaScript, Java, and Python, giving organisations confidence that malware has not been inserted during the build or distribution of libraries in those ecosystems.

•             Announcing Chainguard VMs, offering customers a cloud-agnostic, threat-resistant environment for deploying and running containers.

•             Surpassing 1,700 minimal, zero-CVE images in its Chainguard Containers catalogue, covering most modern application stacks.

•             Announcing availability on all major cloud provider marketplaces – Microsoft Azure, AWS, and GCP – so customers can adopt Chainguard Containers directly within their existing procurement and deployment workflows.

•             Welcoming a new CISO and new CFO to support the next phase of its growth.

•             Being named to the Forbes Cloud 100 and the Fortune Best Workplaces in Technology, validating its industry leadership and culture.

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