What Akave Cloud does

Akave Cloud is a venture-backed cloud infrastructure company founded in 2024 by Stefaan Vervaet (CEO), Daniel León (COO), and Angelo Schalley (CTO), headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware with operations in Austin, Texas. The company operates an S3-compatible object storage platform combined with blockchain-based verifiability, architected as a custom L1 subnet on the Avalanche blockchain. Its product portfolio comprises Akave Cloud (the managed storage platform), Akave O3 (an S3-compatible API gateway), the Akave Network protocol (for self-hosted deployments), and eCID (Encrypted Content Identifiers) — a pipeline that combines encryption, Reed-Solomon erasure coding, and on-chain commitments to produce tamper-evident content addressing.

The platform differentiates on three vectors: zero egress fees (with tiered subscription pricing of €5.99 and €14.99 per TB per month plus custom enterprise contracts), S3-API compatibility for drop-in migration off hyperscalers, and on-chain audit trails with programmable access controls targeted at compliance-heavy and AI workloads. Akave has built a multi-channel go-to-market that combines a self-serve product-led growth motion (free trial and 5-minute deploy via console.akave.com) with enterprise field sales and channel partnerships through Snowflake, Apache Iceberg, DuckDB, Rclone, and CloudMounter, alongside a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server that exposes storage to LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Ollama. Customer logos disclosed include Heurist.ai, Intuizi, 375ai, SkyMapper, LaserSETI, the SETI Institute, The Defiant, Asterisk Women's Health, Baselight, and Phala Network, spanning AI/ML, analytics, DePIN, media, and scientific research.

The company has raised approximately $10.1M across two disclosed rounds — a $3.45M financing in November 2024 and a $6.65M seed in March 2026 — with investors including Protocol Labs, No Limit Holdings, Avalanche Foundation, Filecoin Foundation, Blockchange, Lightshift, Blockchain Builders Fund, and Big Brain Holdings. The company reports 52 SkyBridge hardware units deployed across 6 continents, claims hundreds of petabytes of partner-network storage capacity, holds SOC 2 Type II certification, and received the 2026 Intellyx Digital Innovator Award. Revenue is not publicly disclosed; based on headcount (1-10), early customer mix, and the July 2025 GA launch, current annual revenue is most likely in the low six figures to under $1M range.

Name

Akave Cloud

Legal name

Akave Cloud

Website

https://akave.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Akave Cloud is an enterprise cloud storage company offering S3-compatible object storage with blockchain-based verifiability, zero egress fees, and on-chain audit trails, built on an Avalanche L1 subnet and serving AI/ML, analytics, DePIN, and scientific research customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Decentralized Cloud Storage

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Cloud Storage Core Services (Object/Block/File Storage as a Service) (HDABAAAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data Security & Privacy for Cloud (DLP, DSPM, Tokenization) (HDABAHAK), Interoperability & Cross-Chain Infrastructure (Bridges, Messaging, Atomic Swaps) (FSAGAMAI), Cloud Data Security (DSPM, Cloud DLP) (HDADADAJ), Cloud Identity & Access Management Infrastructure (IAM/IdP/MFA) (HDABAHAF)

Keywords

• S3-compatible object storage
• Decentralized cloud storage
• Blockchain storage infrastructure
• AI data lake storage
• Verifiable data storage

Headquarters

HQ city

Wilmington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Storage Subscription: Tiered subscription model for storage capacity with Standard, Plus, and Enterprise tiers. Revenue based on storage volume consumed per month.
2. Usage-Based Storage: Pay-per-use pricing based on actual storage consumption, aligned with consumption-based cloud billing

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Akave Cloud provides enterprise-grade S3-compatible object storage built on a custom Avalanche L1 blockchain, delivering zero-egress-fee storage with on-chain verifiability and client-side encryption. The platform serves AI/ML, analytics, DePIN, and enterprise backup workloads by offering a drop-in AWS S3 replacement that eliminates data movement costs and provides cryptographic audit trails for data provenance and integrity.

Product overview

Akave Cloud is a unified product portfolio centered on Akave Cloud as the flagship enterprise storage platform, complemented by the Akave O3 gateway module for S3-compatible API access, the Akave Network protocol layer for self-hosted deployments, and eCID (Encrypted Content Identifiers) as a security feature for verifiable content addressing. The architecture combines decentralized storage with enterprise-grade usability—Akave Cloud provides managed S3-compatible object storage with on-chain verifiability and zero egress fees, while Akave O3 serves as the integration layer connecting existing data pipelines (Snowflake, DuckDB, Rclone) to the decentralized backend. Akave Network enables self-hosting for enterprises requiring full data custody, and eCID delivers cryptographic content verification across the entire stack.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Akave Cloud Enterprise-grade distributed and scalable S3-compatible object storage designed for large-scale datasets in AI, analytics, and enterprise pipelines. Offers cryptographic verifiability, immutable audit trails, SDKs for agentic AI applications, zero egress fees, and no vendor lock-in, delivering up to 80% savings vs hyperscalers. Targeted at AI/ML, analytics, DePIN, and enterprise backup/archival workloads.
• Akave O3 S3-compatible object API gateway that connects enterprise workflows to Akave's decentralized storage backend. Provides full S3 API compatibility, retention policies, ACL enforcement, and integrations with Snowflake, Apache Iceberg, DuckDB, Rclone, CloudMounter, and MCP Server, enabling seamless use of existing data pipelines, analytics workflows, and AI systems without refactoring.
• Akave Network Decentralized storage protocol built on an Avalanche L1 blockchain that powers Akave Cloud. Supports self-hosting capabilities for enterprises that require full self-custody control over their data, policies, and infrastructure, and provides onchain verifiability for every storage action.

Quantifiable outcome

• Zero egress fees vs significant egress costs from hyperscalers
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability3 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and moderate.

• Avalanche FoundationflagshipTechnology or IntegrationCore strategic partnership where Akave Cloud operates as a custom L1 subnet on Avalanche. The Avalanche Foundation supports the ecosystem and provides foundational blockchain infrastructure.
• Filecoin FoundationcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partner providing decentralized storage infrastructure and ecosystem alignment. Filecoin Foundation supports decentralized storage networks and has invested in Akave Cloud.
• SnowflakecoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology integration partner enabling Akave Cloud storage within Snowflake's analytics platform, allowing customers to use Akave as a storage backend for analytics workloads.
• Apache IcebergmoderateTechnology or IntegrationTechnology integration supporting Apache Iceberg open table format for analytics data stored on Akave Cloud.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Filecoin (Protocol Labs): Filecoin is the largest decentralized storage network. Akave has integrated Filecoin for cold storage and shares an investor (Protocol Labs); both compete for the decentralized storage dollar targeting enterprise and archival workloads.
• Cloudflare R2: Cloudflare R2 offers S3-compatible object storage with zero egress fees—the same headline value proposition as Akave but on a centralized infrastructure. Directly comparable on price/positioning to enterprise buyers.
• Storj: Storj provides decentralized, S3-compatible cloud storage with an enterprise focus and similar claims on durability and cost efficiency. Most directly competitive decentralized storage peer to Akave.
• Arweave: Arweave is a decentralized storage blockchain focused on permanent, tamper-proof data storage. Comparable blockchain-based storage architecture targeting immutable archiving use cases like journalism (TheDefiant) and scientific data.
• Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage: Wasabi offers S3-compatible object storage with no egress fees, targeting cost-sensitive enterprise backup and archival workloads. Same S3-compatibility and zero-egress value proposition as Akave on traditional infrastructure.
• Backblaze B2: Backblaze B2 is a low-cost, S3-compatible cloud object storage service frequently benchmarked against AWS S3 for price. Comparable on cost-efficient S3-compatible positioning for SMB and enterprise backup.

Broad incumbents

• Amazon S3: Amazon S3 is the dominant cloud object storage service and the incumbent Akave is positioning against on cost (egress), verifiability, and data sovereignty. The primary competitor whose pricing Akave benchmarks itself against.
• Google Cloud Storage: Google Cloud Storage is a hyperscale object storage service competing for the same enterprise workloads Akave targets (AI/analytics data lakes). One of the three major hyperscalers whose pricing Akave benchmarks itself against.

Emerging players

• Crust Network: Crust Network is a decentralized storage protocol on Polkadot offering S3-compatible interfaces. Comparable decentralized storage technology stack with similar DePIN positioning, though smaller ecosystem scale than Akave's Avalanche base.
• 0Chain: 0Chain provides decentralized storage with on-chain data governance and verifiability, similar to Akave's eCID-style tamper-evident claims. Niche competitor targeting compliance and audit-trail use cases.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/akave
• Xx.com/akavenetwork

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Akave Cloud