Chainguard
Chainguard is a cloud-native supply chain security company that uses an AI-powered SLSA Level 3-compliant factory to continuously rebuild open source containers, libraries, VMs, and CI/CD artifacts from source, serving approximately 400 regulated-industry and cloud-native enterprise customers across federal, financial, defense, and technology sectors.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2021
- HeadquartersKirkland, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Chainguard does
Chainguard is a Kirkland, Washington-based cloud-native software supply chain security company founded in 2021 by former Google engineers. The company builds and operates the Chainguard Factory, an AI-powered agentic software factory that continuously rebuilds open source containers, libraries, virtual machines, OS packages, CI/CD actions, and AI agent skills from source in an SLSA Level 3-compliant isolated environment, producing signed artifacts with full provenance, SBOMs, and Sigstore attestations. The flagship commercial product is Chainguard Containers, a catalog of 2,000+ minimal, zero-CVE container images backed by a contractual CVE remediation SLA (7 days for critical, 14 days for high/medium/low). The platform has been extended into Chainguard Libraries (malware-free language dependencies for Python, JavaScript, and Java replacing public registries), Chainguard VMs, Chainguard OS Packages, Chainguard Actions, and Chainguard Agent Skills, plus the Guardener AI agent for autonomous Dockerfile migration.
The company operates a hybrid go-to-market combining enterprise direct sales (anchored on FedRAMP, PCI DSS, CMMC 2.0, and SOC 2 solutions pages) with a product-led growth layer (Chainguard Catalog Starter free tier of five images and a self-serve console). Pricing is quote-based with Catalog licensing starting at $19,000 for a 10-person engineering organization and scaling non-linearly; Per-Image and Per-Ecosystem models exist for scoped deployments. Distribution is multi-channel: hyperscaler co-sell with AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, Indian SI partnerships (TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Persistent, LTIMindtree), pull-through integrations with 18+ vulnerability scanners (Snyk, Wiz, CrowdStrike, JFrog Xray, Trivy), and a Commercial Builds OEM program with 12 ISV partners including GitLab, Elastic, Percona, and Azul. Chainguard serves approximately 400 customer organizations across federal, financial services, defense, healthcare, and cloud-native technology segments. The company has raised approximately $892 million in cumulative funding across six rounds, reaching a $3.5 billion valuation in its April 2025 Series D led by Kleiner Perkins and IVP, and is led by CEO Dan Lorenc.
Chainguard firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Chainguard
- Legal name
- Chainguard, Inc.
- Website
- https://chainguard.dev
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2021
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Chainguard is a cloud-native supply chain security company that uses an AI-powered SLSA Level 3-compliant factory to continuously rebuild open source containers, libraries, VMs, and CI/CD artifacts from source, serving approximately 400 regulated-industry and cloud-native enterprise customers across federal, financial, defense, and technology sectors.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Chainguard industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Software Supply Chain Security
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210)
- SIC
- Wholesale-Electronic Parts & Equipment, Nec (5065)
- akta.pro primary industry
- DevSecOps & Supply Chain Security (DevOps toolchain security) (BPAEAKAI)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Software Supply Chain & Dependency Security (SBOM, Signing) (HDADACAD)
Keywords
Where Chainguard is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Kirkland
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Chainguard business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription licensing — Chainguard Containers (Catalog): Annual recurring subscription priced by size of engineering organization that operates in containerized environments. Starts at $19K for a team of 10 and scales non-linearly. Includes full access to 2,000+ images, contractual CVE SLA, and ability to request net-new images. Volume discounts available for multi-year commitments.
- Subscription licensing — Chainguard Containers (Per Image): Enterprise-priced annual subscription licensed by number and type of images (base, app, AI/ML, FIPS). Best for teams with targeted use cases. Includes contractual CVE SLA and access to all upstream supported tags.
- Subscription licensing — Chainguard Libraries: Annual recurring subscription licensed by ecosystem (Python, Java, JavaScript) based on the number of developers using that language. Unlimited applications per ecosystem with no metering on pulls; backported patches for critical and high-severity CVEs.
- Subscription licensing — Chainguard VMs: Annual recurring subscription for minimal secure-by-design VM images for cloud and on-premise. Two models: Catalog (sized by engineering organization) or Per-Image (number and type of images). Includes 7/14-day CVE remediation SLA.
- Chainguard OS Packages: Recurring subscription access to 30,000+ secure packages and select base images for custom container builds. Includes Private APK Repository access, continuous CVE remediation, and enterprise support.
- Freemium — Chainguard Catalog Starter (5 free images): Free tier providing five images of choice (with 'latest' tag only, no CVE remediation SLA) for developers to test and deploy in production. Drives self-serve adoption and PLG funnel into paid licensing.
- Commercial Builds — ISV partner revenue sharing: Revenue-share program where software vendors (Azul, Elastic, GitLab, Percona, etc.) contribute their software to Chainguard's AI-native Factory platform to be packaged as hardened container images with zero known CVEs, generating new revenue streams for partners.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Catalog Starter — 5 free images of choice, latest tag only |
| Subscription | Annual | Chainguard Containers Catalog — wall-to-wall standardization |
| Unit Pricing | Annual | Chainguard Containers Per Image — scoped production deployments |
| Per seat | Annual | Chainguard Libraries — Per Ecosystem |
| Hybrid | Annual | Chainguard VMs — Per Image or Catalog |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels7 records
Marketing channels8 records
Chainguard product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Chainguard builds, maintains, and licenses a catalog of secure-by-default open source software artifacts—including minimal container images, language libraries, virtual machine images, OS packages, CI/CD actions, and AI agent skills—continuously rebuilt from source in an SLSA Level 3-compliant Factory. These hardened artifacts are sold primarily as annual subscriptions to enterprise engineering, security, and platform teams, accompanied by a CVE remediation SLA, full SBOMs, provenance attestations, and Sigstore signatures.
Product overview
Chainguard is a platform-plus-modules architecture offering trusted, secure-by-default open source software artifacts for the software supply chain. The unifying core is the AI-powered Chainguard Factory, an SLSA L3-compliant agentic software factory that continuously rebuilds open source projects from source and produces signed artifacts with provenance, SBOMs, and attestations. Built on this platform, Chainguard offers six artifact-specific products spanning the modern software stack: Chainguard Containers (the flagship minimal, zero-CVE container image catalog with a CVE remediation SLA), Chainguard Libraries (malware-free language dependencies for Python, JavaScript, and Java that replace PyPI/npm/Maven Central), Chainguard VMs (minimal Linux VM images for cloud and on-premise), Chainguard OS Packages (30,000+ secure Linux packages for custom container builds), Chainguard Actions (hardened CI/CD workflows), and Chainguard Agent Skills (hardened AI agent capabilities). The Guardener AI agent serves as an add-on module for automated Dockerfile migration, while Chainguard Commercial Builds packages third-party ISV software, the Chainguard Repository unifies all artifact types behind a single platform, and the Athena coalition extends the platform to coordinated industry-wide open source vulnerability defense.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Chainguard Containers: Minimal container images rebuilt from source in a SLSA L3-compliant Factory with best-in-class CVE remediation SLA.
- Chainguard Libraries
- Chainguard VMs
- Chainguard OS Packages
- Chainguard Actions
- Chainguard Agent Skills
- Chainguard Factory
- Chainguard Repository
Products and services
- Chainguard Containers Catalog of 2,000+ minimal, zero-CVE container images continuously rebuilt from source in an SLSA L3-compliant environment, available in Base, 3rd Party Apps, AI/ML, and FIPS variants and governed by a CVE remediation SLA of 7 days for critical and 14 days for high/medium/low severity. Sold as annual subscription to enterprise engineering, security, and platform teams.
- Chainguard Libraries Malware-free catalog of language dependencies (Python, JavaScript, Java) rebuilt from source in an SLSA L3 environment, replacing direct reliance on public registries like PyPI, npm, and Maven Central. Achieves 94% coverage of Python dependencies in customer environments and prevents 98% of known malicious packages in testing. Sold as annual subscription licensed by developer per language ecosystem.
- Chainguard VMs Minimal Linux virtual machine images based on Chainguard OS for deploying containers across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premise (VMware, Nutanix, OpenStack, Qcow2, RAW). Includes Container Host, Base, Application, and FIPS VM types with kernel-independent FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography and DISA STIG and CIS Benchmark Level 1 hardening. Sold as annual subscription under Per-Image or Catalog pricing.
- Chainguard OS Packages 30,000+ secure, zero-CVE Linux packages and select base images for composing bespoke custom container images using Bazel/rules_apko, Melange, and Dockerfiles. Includes Private APK Repository access, continuous CVE remediation, and enterprise support. FIPS variant available with the Chainguard FIPS Provider. Sold as annual subscription.
- Chainguard Actions Secure-by-default CI/CD workflow solution that hardens and re-publishes upstream actions with each action pinning internal uses to immutable SHAs. Protects against tag hijacking, dependency confusion, pull_request_target abuse, and secret exfiltration. Drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions; coverage for GitLab CI/CD, Azure Pipelines, Jenkins, and CircleCI planned. Currently in beta.
- Chainguard Agent Skills Continuously maintained, self-healing catalog of hardened AI agent skills (SKILL.md files) addressing agent skill attack vectors including unrestricted shell access and overly broad permissions. Developers install a hardened skill by copying a single SKILL.md file. Currently in beta.
- Chainguard Factory AI-powered agentic software factory that powers all Chainguard products. Runs reconciler bots and AI agents continuously across the catalog to monitor upstream sources, detect drift, dispatch fix agents, and produce signed artifacts with provenance, SBOMs, attestations, and Sigstore signatures. Operates at SLSA L3 compliance and has produced over 500 million unique container build manifests.
- The Guardener AI agent that intelligently rebuilds Dockerfiles layer by layer with incremental validation and functional equivalence checks, automating migration from legacy distros to production-ready Chainguard artifacts in under an hour. Integrates with GitHub or local deployment environments via API callbacks. Currently in beta.
- Chainguard Repository Unified managed platform launched March 17, 2026 for pulling secure-by-default open source containers, libraries, OS packages, virtual machines, CI/CD workflows, and agent skills with built-in intelligent security policies, cooldowns, and blocklists. Initial GA offered over 73,000 Chainguard-built JavaScript packages built in an SLSA L3-compliant environment.
- Chainguard Commercial Builds Program enabling software vendors and open source providers to deliver secure commercial software as hardened container images with zero known vulnerabilities, full provenance, and defined CVE service-level agreements. Revenue-share model with twelve initial partners including Azul, Elastic, GitLab, Grafana Labs, Percona, and others.
- Athena Coalition Chainguard-led industry coalition for orchestrated defense of open source software against AI-driven vulnerabilities. Pools findings, performs pre-embargo remediation through private forks, coordinates upstream disclosure, and provides platform/network mitigations. Founding members include BNY, Cisco, Cloudflare, Docker, JPMorganChase, Kyndryl, LTIMindtree, and PwC. Has processed 20,000+ findings and generated 2,000+ patches across 500 open source projects.
- EmeritOSS Program to maintain and secure unmaintained but critical open-source projects such as Kaniko, Kubeapps, and Ingress-NGINX, providing stability and vulnerability fixes without adding new features. Functions as a maintainer-of-last-resort for orphaned projects.
- Chainguard Catalog Starter Free tier providing five container images of the customer's choice from the Chainguard Catalog for testing and production deployment. Only ':latest' version tags are available, and images are not covered under the CVE remediation SLA.
- Chainguard FIPS Module for OpenSSL 3.4 First FIPS container images built on OpenSSL 3.4, with Chainguard owning and maintaining its own validated cryptographic module. Includes an industry-first commitment to zero known CVEs in validated FIPS modules and alignment to NIST SP 800-131A through 2030. All Chainguard FIPS container images upgraded on March 17, 2026.
- Chainguard Fulfillment Dashboard Fulfillment Dashboard providing visibility into the prioritization of software projects and packages for secure container images, improving planning and reducing duplicate requests.
- JCK Certified Java in Chainguard Images JCK Certified Java runtime added to Chainguard Images, supporting organizations with formal Java certification requirements.
Quantifiable outcome
- 97.6% average reduction in CVEs vs OSS alternatives
- +10 more outcomes
Companies that use Chainguard
Customer profileNamed customers41 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Chainguard technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration29 records
AI capability12 records
Feature8 records
Chainguard partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators18 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Chainguard competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Docker: Docker offers Docker Hardened Images, a catalog of enterprise-grade hardened container images that competes most directly with Chainguard Containers in the secure base image category. Docker is also an Athena coalition founding member, making it simultaneously a peer and a partner.
- Snyk: Snyk is a developer security platform with container and open source dependency scanning that competes in the same software supply chain security Gartner Magic Quadrant as Chainguard. Snyk scans Chainguard images but also offers competing remediation tooling.
- Aqua Security: Aqua Security provides container, Kubernetes, and cloud-native application protection including its Trivy scanner. Directly comparable to Chainguard's container security and supply chain offering for enterprise customers.
- Wiz: Wiz is a cloud security platform that has expanded into software supply chain security and container vulnerability management. Competes in the same Gartner Magic Quadrant and shares enterprise customers with Chainguard.
- JFrog: JFrog provides artifact management (Artifactory) and software supply chain security (Xray, JFrog Curation) that overlaps with Chainguard's Libraries and Containers offerings for enterprise dev teams.
- Anchore: Anchore provides container security, compliance, and SBOM management for enterprise container workflows, directly competing with Chainguard in regulated industries and government sectors.
- GitLab: GitLab is both a Commercial Builds partner and a direct competitor through its DevSecOps platform with built-in container and dependency scanning, named alongside Chainguard in Gartner's Software Supply Chain Security MQ.
- Sysdig: Sysdig offers cloud-native application protection including runtime container security and image scanning that competes for the same regulated-industry container security budgets as Chainguard.
- Sonatype: Sonatype operates Nexus Repository and Lifecycle for open source dependency management, overlapping with Chainguard Libraries' value proposition of providing trusted Python, JavaScript, and Java dependencies.
- Checkmarx: Checkmarx is an application security platform with software composition analysis and supply chain security capabilities that compete in the same Gartner Magic Quadrant category as Chainguard.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Chainguard social profiles
Digital presenceChainguard compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance12 records
Chainguard financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Chainguard leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Chainguard funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors16 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Chainguard M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Chainguard
What does Chainguard do?
Chainguard builds, maintains, and licenses a catalog of secure-by-default open source software artifacts—including minimal container images, language libraries, virtual machine images, OS packages, CI/CD actions, and AI agent skills—continuously rebuilt from source in an SLSA Level 3-compliant Factory. These hardened artifacts are sold primarily as annual subscriptions to enterprise engineering, security, and platform teams, accompanied by a CVE remediation SLA, full SBOMs, provenance attestations, and Sigstore signatures.
Is Chainguard a public or private company?
Chainguard is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Chainguard founded?
Chainguard was founded in 2021. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Chainguard based?
Chainguard is headquartered in Kirkland, United States, in the North America region.
How does Chainguard make money?
Seven revenue lines are on record. Subscription licensing — Chainguard Containers (Catalog) is the primary driver. The others are subscription licensing — Chainguard Containers (Per Image), subscription licensing — Chainguard Libraries, subscription licensing — Chainguard VMs, chainguard OS Packages, freemium — Chainguard Catalog Starter (5 free images) and commercial Builds — ISV partner revenue sharing.
Who are Chainguard's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Docker, Snyk, Aqua Security, Wiz, JFrog, Anchore, GitLab, Sysdig, Sonatype and Checkmarx.
Does Chainguard have an API?
No public API is recorded for Chainguard.
What industry is Chainguard in?
Chainguard's product category is Software Supply Chain Security. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAKAI, DevSecOps & Supply Chain Security (DevOps toolchain security), with a secondary code of HDADACAD, Software Supply Chain & Dependency Security (SBOM, Signing). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 5065.