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SaltStack provides an event-driven automation platform for IT infrastructure management. Its core open-source product, Salt, delivers high-speed remote execution, configuration management, and intelligent orchestration across diverse environments. The platform automates software deployment, patching, and configuration at scale for on-premises and cloud infrastructures.
The company was co-founded in 2011 by Thomas Hatch, original creator of the Salt open-source project, and Marc Chenn. Hatch’s insight addressed the critical need for a scalable, flexible framework to rapidly manage and configure complex, distributed IT systems. This vision drove the development of a powerful automation tool.
SaltStack’s technology is adopted by organizations streamlining IT operations, enforcing security, and enhancing infrastructure agility. It serves diverse users, from development teams to large enterprises managing extensive server fleets. The company envisions autonomous infrastructure management, empowering businesses to prioritize innovation over operational burdens through intelligent automation.
SaltStack has raised $27.0M across 2 funding rounds.
SaltStack has raised $27.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
SaltStack is a technology company that builds Salt, an open-source infrastructure-as-code (IaC) platform for configuration management, remote execution, and automation at scale[1][2][3][4][5]. It serves IT professionals, DevOps teams, SecOps, NetOps, and enterprises managing complex data centers, hybrid clouds, and application stacks, solving problems like manual configuration errors, infrastructure drift, and slow scaling through event-driven, high-speed automation[1][3][4][5]. Customers include LinkedIn, eBay, Salesforce, Adobe, and TD Bank, with the open-source project boasting thousands of contributors; the company offered both free open-source tools and enterprise products before its acquisition[3][5][6].
Growth was strong post-2011 founding, with a Series A round in 2018 raising total funding to $28 million led by Mercato Partners, and adoption by tens of thousands of IT organizations for use cases like multi-cloud management and continuous deployment[3][9]. VMware acquired SaltStack in September 2020, integrating its capabilities into broader virtualization and cloud management offerings[1].
SaltStack was founded in 2011 in Lehi, Utah (Silicon Slopes), by Thomas S. Hatch (CTO, Utah native and award-winning open-source developer) and Marc Chenn (CEO, Hong Kong native with finance MBA from BYU and systems management experience)[2][3]. Hatch created the Salt open-source project to address gaps in existing tools for high-speed data collection and task execution in massive data centers, leveraging ZeroMQ for networking; early versions focused on remote execution, with stable configuration management (using YAML states) by Salt 0.9.3 in November 2011[1][4].
Pivotal moments included the 2013 Salt 0.14.0 release adding cloud provisioning for AWS, Azure, and others, enabling hybrid cloud automation[1]. The company formalized around maintaining Salt (now one of the largest open-source projects) and building enterprise extensions, securing $28 million in funding by 2018 and VMware acquisition in 2020[1][3][9].
SaltStack stands out in configuration management through these key strengths:
SaltStack rides the DevOps and IaC wave, emerging in 2011 amid rising cloud complexity and the need for automation beyond slower tools, perfectly timed for hybrid/multi-cloud adoption and container orchestration[1][4][5]. Market forces like explosive infrastructure growth (e.g., AWS/Azure scaling) favor its ZeroMQ-powered speed for web-scale ops, influencing the ecosystem by popularizing event-driven automation—self-healing systems reduce downtime, enabling practices now standard in tools like Ansible[3][4][5].
Post-acquisition, VMware amplifies Salt's reach in enterprise virtualization, pushing IaC into mainstream hybrid environments and boosting open-source contributions that benefit the broader automation landscape[1][3].
Under VMware (since 2020), SaltStack's tech will likely deepen integration with Tanzu and vSphere for AI-driven ops, edge computing, and zero-trust security, capitalizing on trends like GitOps and sustainable infra[1]. Rising demands for resilient, multi-cloud automation position it strongly, potentially evolving influence through expanded enterprise APIs and community-driven innovations. As IaC matures, SaltStack exemplifies how open-source speed humanizes massive-scale management—started by solving sysadmin pain, now powering the next era of self-orchestrating clouds.
SaltStack has raised $27.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
SaltStack's investors include Album VC, Balderton Capital, FTAC Ventures, Incite Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Point72 Ventures.
SaltStack has raised $27.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $16.0M Series A in February 2018.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 1, 2018 | $16.0M Series A | Album VC, Balderton Capital, FTAC Ventures, Incite Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Point72 Ventures | |
| Sep 1, 2016 | $11.0M Venture Round | Album VC, Balderton Capital, FTAC Ventures, Incite Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Point72 Ventures |