Modern software is 80% open-source code that developers copy-paste and pray has no backdoor. Snyk built the tool that actually checks. Developer-first security that plugs into the workflow instead of slowing it down — 2 million developers on the free tier before most enterprises knew they needed it. Raised $1.3 billion at an $8.5B peak valuation. Whether they grow into it is the $8.5 billion question.
Founded
2015
HQ
Boston, Massachusetts
Total Raised
$1.3 Billion
Founder
Guy Podjarny
Status
Private — Late Stage
Website
snyk.ioTHE ORIGIN STORY
Guy Podjarny was CTO of Akamai's web performance division and spent years watching companies get hacked through vulnerabilities in open-source code. Modern software is 80%+ open-source components, and nobody tracked whether those components had known vulnerabilities.
Traditional security tools were built for security teams, not developers. Podjarny founded Snyk in 2015 in London (later moved HQ to Boston) with a simple premise: build security tools developers actually want to use.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Snyk sells developer-first security tools — software that finds and fixes vulnerabilities in code, open-source dependencies, containers, and infrastructure-as-code before the application ships. It integrates directly into IDEs, Git repos, and CI/CD pipelines.
Pricing is per developer per month with a generous free tier. The core insight: developers ship 100x more code than security teams can review, so developers must become the security team.
THE PRODUCTS
Snyk Open Source (dependency scanning), Snyk Code (static analysis), Snyk Container, Snyk IaC (infrastructure-as-code), Snyk AppRisk
HOW THEY GREW
Developer adoption as a wedge. The free tier lets any developer scan code for vulnerabilities — no purchase order needed.
Once enough developers at a company use the free version, sales approaches for an enterprise deal. Classic product-led growth.
Expanded from open-source scanning into container security, infrastructure-as-code, and AI-generated code scanning.
THE HARD PART
The 2022-2023 valuation reset. Snyk raised at an $8.5 billion valuation in 2022 at the peak of the everything bubble.
Revenue was growing fast but cash burn was heavy. When the market corrected, Snyk did layoffs, cut spending, and pivoted to profitability.
The company is still private and likely worth significantly less than $8.5 billion on paper.
MONEY TRAIL
Series A-G
2015-2022 · Led by Accel, Tiger Global, Addition, QIA
$1.3B raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Accel, GV (Google Ventures), Tiger Global, Addition, Boldstart Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, BlackRock, Qatar Investment Authority
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