Red Kubes raises $1.2M in seed funding extension for its self-hosted SaaS for Kubernetes; announces new CEO Rouven Besters

Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, has quickly become the de facto tool to run cloud-native applications less than a decade after it was first introduced by Google in 2014.

However, Kubernetes have a reputation for being complex and costly. That’s why the team at dutch startup Red Kubes created Otomi, a platform aimed to address this issue by providing a developer self-service catalog for production workloads, integrating key components and services required for a cloud-native application platform.

To further grow its platform, Red Kubes announced today it has raised $1.2 million in seed extension funding, which will be channeled into accelerating sales and marketing efforts and further development and evolution of the platform.

In conjunction with the funding, Red Kubes also announced the appointment of Rouven Besters as the company’s new as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Prior to joining Red Kubes, Rouven Besters served as director of VMware Tanzu/Pivotal where he most recently led the Northern Europe GTM team for the modern apps business unit from VMware. Since 2015, he has been building and growing cloud-based businesses and has been a leader in modern application development and cloud-native platform companies.

Before joining Pivotal, Besters supported companies in adopting private cloud technologies with some of the largest companies in the region and has led GTM strategies and teams for startups and high-growth companies.

Founded in 2019, Red Kubes is now gearing up for its next phase of growth. Having come from the Cloud-native domain, Besters brings the right experience and vision to lead the company forward.

The strategic direction for the next phase is now set, said Besters, and the laser focus will be on growth, go-to-market, and execution. The focus of the previous phase has been to progress the development of Otomi, a first-of-its-kind platform to deliver automation, integration, and configuration of all the required capabilities to use Kubernetes in production out-of-the-box. Rouven’s appointment will allow the company to further execute the product strategy to move towards an even more enhanced user experience for developers and platform operators.

Commenting on the appointment, Besters said:

“I could not be more excited for what lies ahead within our ecosystem. Companies are recognizing the challenges of operationalizing Kubernetes. The Red Kubes team has done a stellar job in building a mature product that addresses these challenges. For Red Kubes, the opportunity to support customers in accelerating outcomes from Kubernetes only becomes bigger. While almost every company will be going after the opportunities of Kubernetes, they will also be presented with a dilemma, and Red Kubes is ideally positioned to help solve that dilemma.”

The company envisions a world where developers can focus all of their time on application code and delivering value to their users instead of dealing with the Kubernetes internals. With the seed extension funding from venture capital firm Capital Mills, Red Kubes will continue to deliver more value addition for developers in automating application delivery, moving forward in their mission of accelerating apps into production. Automating work for platform operators and developers enables them to focus on achieving user delight without having to hire more people. The funding will also allow Red Kubes to grow and expedite the company’s vision, in turn allowing for more clients to get quicker outcomes when using Kubernetes.

“The market for Kubernetes is progressing quickly and companies are finding it hard to keep up. This was the initial idea for Otomi and we are very pleased to see that the product has evolved to its comprehensive and mature state with happy users. We are very excited with the appointment of Rouven as the CEO, and combined with the extended seed round, Red Kubes is now ready to accelerate growth and extend its reach”, says Erwin van der Veen, partner at Capital Mills, an early-stage investor with a focus on the first growth phase of innovative companies.