Blackswift
BlackSwift is a French sovereign cloud provider offering Kontainers, a managed Kubernetes platform deployed on French OVH and Scaleway infrastructure. It targets developers and organizations needing GDPR-aligned data residency, monetizing through usage-based compute, storage, and load balancer billing.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersPeynier, France
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Blackswift does
BlackSwift SAS is a French sovereign cloud provider headquartered in Peynier, near Aix-en-Provence, founded in 2018 and operating as a small private company (capital social €1,000; 1–10 employees). Its core product, Kontainers, is a fully managed, turnkey Kubernetes platform deployed on infrastructure hosted by French providers OVH, Scaleway (Iliad), and Ikoula — covering Strasbourg, Gravelines, and Roubaix datacenters with multi-region high availability, 25 Gbps encrypted private networking, and natively encrypted NVMe storage. The platform bundles pre-configured Rancher management, Grafana monitoring, automatic SSL via an Ingress Controller, daily snapshot backups, and a CloudNative-PG PostgreSQL operator add-on, with a published 99.9% SLA and a 24/7 on-call support commitment.
The company monetizes Kontainers and adjacent services primarily through transparent usage-based billing: €0.004/hour per compute bundle (0.1 vCPU + 0.2 Go RAM), €0.001/Go/hour for persistent SSD storage, and €0.02/hour for dedicated load balancers, supplemented by optional subscription-based support packages managed through Freshdesk. Distribution is exclusively digital and self-serve — customers sign up online via a Google Form, provision clusters immediately, and engage through a Slack community, technical blog, documentation portal, BSphere customer portal, and status page — with no apparent sales team or reseller motion. Marketing and pipeline development rely heavily on community presence at conferences (KubeCon 2024, Riviera Dev 2026, Web Days Convention 2026) and content publishing.
BlackSwift serves a horizontally segmented audience with two emphasized use cases: (1) DevOps/SRE teams and developers seeking managed Kubernetes without operational complexity, and (2) organizations with French/EU data-sovereignty and GDPR compliance requirements that exclude U.S. hyperscalers. Named customers include Wilout (event ticketing and cashless payments, reporting an 8x infrastructure cost reduction post-migration in 2023), La Fabrique IT, IBD, and La Plateforme (French tech education). The company is led by four co-founders: Alexis Ducastel (Président), Ivan Beauté (Directeur Technique), Frédéric Houdemer (Responsable développements applicatifs), and Jérôme Savajols (Conseiller stratégique). All four are listed as co-founders with technical/strategic backgrounds; no external institutional investors, parent company, M&A activity, or disclosure of revenue, ARR, or capital raises appears in the available sources.
Blackswift firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Blackswift
- Legal name
- BlackSwift SAS
- Website
- https://blackswift.fr
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- BlackSwift is a French sovereign cloud provider offering Kontainers, a managed Kubernetes platform deployed on French OVH and Scaleway infrastructure. It targets developers and organizations needing GDPR-aligned data residency, monetizing through usage-based compute, storage, and load balancer billing.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Blackswift industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Managed Kubernetes Platform
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Container Platforms & Orchestration (Kubernetes) (HDABADAF)
Keywords
Where Blackswift is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Peynier
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Blackswift business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Infrastructure, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Kubernetes Compute (CPU+RAM): Billing per container bundle (0.1 vCPU + 0.2 Go RAM) based on maximum reserved between CPU and RAM. Charged hourly at €0.004/hour (€2.88/month). No network surcharges.
- Persistent SSD Storage: NVMe encrypted storage with automatic replication, billed per provisioned GB at €0.001/Go/hour (€0.72/month per Go)
- Dedicated Load Balancers: Kubernetes LoadBalancer service with dedicated public IP, billed at €0.02/hour (€14.40/month per LB)
- Support Services: Optional support packages including Slack channel, email assistance, and ticket tracking via Freshdesk
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Compute Bundle - 0.1 vCPU + 0.2 Go RAM |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | NVMe SSD Storage |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Dedicated Load Balancer |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels7 records
Blackswift product offering
Product offeringCore offering
BlackSwift operates Kontainers, a fully managed, turnkey Kubernetes platform built on 100% French infrastructure (OVH and Scaleway datacenters). The service provides pre-configured cluster management (Rancher), integrated Grafana monitoring, automatic SSL certificates, daily backups, NVMe encrypted storage, and dedicated load balancers, billed on a per-container, per-hour, pay-as-you-go basis with no commitment. Complementary offerings include CloudNative-PG for PostgreSQL high availability and the BSphere customer portal.
Product overview
BlackSwift is a French cloud infrastructure company offering a suite of Kubernetes-based products centered on its Kontainers platform. Kontainers is the core managed Kubernetes offering providing turnkey cluster management with integrated monitoring, backups, and load balancing. The product portfolio includes CloudNative-PG (CNPG) for PostgreSQL database management (in private beta) and BSphere, a customer portal for accessing management tools and support. BlackSwift positions itself as a sovereign, 100% French alternative for organizations seeking Kubernetes infrastructure with full data residency in France.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Kontainers Fully managed, turnkey Kubernetes platform offering 100% French infrastructure (OVH and Scaleway). Provides managed clusters, automatic daily backups, integrated Grafana monitoring, pre-configured ingress with automatic SSL certificates, multi-region high availability (k-bdkbsh cluster), NVMe encrypted storage with replication, and dedicated load balancers. Billing is per-container, per-hour with no commitment, aimed at DevOps/SRE teams and sovereign cloud seekers.
- CloudNative-PG (CNPG) for Kontainers Kubernetes operator for PostgreSQL enabling deployment and management of highly available PostgreSQL clusters on Kontainers, with automatic replicas, failover management, built-in backups with Point-In-Time Recovery (PITR), and integrated Prometheus monitoring. Launched in private beta.
- BSphere Customer Portal Centralized customer portal providing access to BlackSwift's tools and services, including the Rancher management interface, Grafana monitoring and logs, documentation, Slack community support, status page, and Freshdesk-backed support ticketing.
- Support Services Optional support packages offering Slack channel access, email assistance, and ticket tracking via Freshdesk, bundled with a 99.9% SLA, 1-hour response time commitment, and 24/7 on-call availability for Kontainers customers.
Companies that use Blackswift
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Blackswift technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature8 records
Blackswift partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.
- Web Days Convention 2026minorBlackSwift is a partner/supporter of Web Days Convention 2026 (Feb 2-6, 2026 in Aix-en-Provence). Five-day event covering Marketing, UI/UX, Frontend, Backend, and DevOps themes.
- OVH (OVH Groupe SAS)corePrimary infrastructure partner providing datacenter space in Strasbourg, Gravelines, and Roubaix. OVH is a French cloud provider and the foundation of BlackSwift's sovereign cloud positioning.
- Scaleway (Iliad)coreInfrastructure partner providing French datacenter resources. Part of the Iliad group, Scaleway complements OVH in BlackSwift's multi-hoster strategy.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Blackswift competitors and assessment
Company assessmentRegional players
- Exoscale (A1 Digital): Swiss/European IaaS provider offering managed Kubernetes with strict European data residency; competes for the same European sovereign-cloud workload demand as BlackSwift.
- Infomaniak: Swiss independent cloud provider emphasizing data sovereignty and eco-friendly hosting; offers managed cloud infrastructure with Swiss jurisdiction, comparable to BlackSwift's French sovereignty positioning in a neighboring market.
Direct peers
- Clever Cloud: French PaaS offering managed hosting and Kubernetes-style orchestration with EU data residency; competes head-to-head with BlackSwift for French and European sovereign workload customers seeking managed application platforms.
- Scalingo: French PaaS based in Toulouse providing managed container hosting with EU data residency; targets the same developer and SMB persona as BlackSwift Kontainers with a similar self-serve model.
- OVHcloud: France's largest sovereign cloud provider and BlackSwift's primary infrastructure partner; also sells its own managed Kubernetes service (OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes), directly competing for the same sovereign-K8s buyer.
- Civo: UK-based managed Kubernetes provider competing on developer experience, transparent pricing, and simplicity; directly comparable to BlackSwift's product-led model and value proposition.
- Scaleway: French/Iliad-owned cloud provider and BlackSwift infrastructure partner; offers Scaleway Kubernetes Kapsule, a managed K8s service targeting the same sovereign, developer-friendly segment in France and Europe.
Broad incumbents
- Ionos: Large European cloud and hosting provider (owned by United Internet) offering managed Kubernetes and sovereign cloud products across multiple EU jurisdictions; a broader incumbent with greater scale than BlackSwift.
- Outscale (Dassault Systèmes): French sovereign cloud provider (now part of Dassault Systèmes) offering managed Kubernetes and infrastructure services with SecNumCloud certification; targets regulated French enterprises, a key buyer persona for BlackSwift.
Emerging players
- Coderower (CodeNOW): European emerging player providing managed Kubernetes and developer platforms with a focus on sovereignty; smaller scale than BlackSwift but overlapping customer base in European regulated industries.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Blackswift social profiles
Digital presenceBlackswift compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Blackswift financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Blackswift leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Blackswift funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Blackswift 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 Blackswift
What does Blackswift do?
BlackSwift operates Kontainers, a fully managed, turnkey Kubernetes platform built on 100% French infrastructure (OVH and Scaleway datacenters). The service provides pre-configured cluster management (Rancher), integrated Grafana monitoring, automatic SSL certificates, daily backups, NVMe encrypted storage, and dedicated load balancers, billed on a per-container, per-hour, pay-as-you-go basis with no commitment. Complementary offerings include CloudNative-PG for PostgreSQL high availability and the BSphere customer portal.
Is Blackswift a public or private company?
Blackswift is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Blackswift founded?
Blackswift was founded in 2018. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Blackswift based?
Blackswift is headquartered in Peynier, France, in the Europe region.
How does Blackswift make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Kubernetes Compute (CPU+RAM) is the primary driver. The others are persistent SSD Storage, dedicated Load Balancers and support Services.
Who are Blackswift's main competitors?
Regional players on record are Exoscale (A1 Digital) and Infomaniak. Direct peers are Clever Cloud, Scalingo, OVHcloud, Civo and Scaleway. Broad incumbents are Ionos and Outscale (Dassault Systèmes). Coderower (CodeNOW) is listed as an emerging player.
Does Blackswift have an API?
No public API is recorded for Blackswift.
What industry is Blackswift in?
Blackswift's product category is Managed Kubernetes Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABADAF, Container Platforms & Orchestration (Kubernetes). Its NAICS code is 5182.