Akamai leads $38M round in Macrometa as the two strike partnership • TechCrunch

Edge computing cloud and global data network Macrometa has raised $38 million led by Akamai Technologies, as the two announce a new partnership and product integrations. The funding also included participation from Shasta Ventures and 60 Degree Capital. Akamai Labs CTO Andy Champagne will join Macrometa’s board.

Macrometa founder and CEO Chetan Venkatesh told TechCrunch that its GDN enables cloud developers to run backend services closer to mobile phones, browsers, smart appliances, connected cars and users in edge regions, or points of presence (PoP). That reduces outages because if one edge region goes down, another one can take over instantly. Akamai’s edge network, meanwhile, covers 4,200 regions around the world.

The partnership between Macrometa and Akamai means the two are combining three infrastructure pieces into one platform for cloud developers: Akamai’s edge network, cloud hosting service Linode (which Akamai bought earlier this year) and Macrometa’s Global Data Network (GDN) and edge cloud. Akamai Edge Workers tech is now available through Macrometa’s GDN console, API and SDK, so developers can build a cloud app or API in Macrometa, and then quickly deploy it to Akamai’s edge locations.

Venkatesh gave some examples of how clients can use the integration between Macrometa and Akamai.

For SaaS customers, the integration means they can see speed increases and latency improvements of between 25x to 100x for their products, resulting in less user churn and better conversion rates for freemium models. Enterprise customers using the joint solution can improve the performance of streaming data pipelines and real-time data analytics. They can also deal with data residency and sovereignty issues by vaulting and tokenizing data in geo-fenced data vaults for compliance.

Video streaming clients, meanwhile, can use the integration to move their platforms to the edge, including authentication, content catalog rendering, personalization and content recommendations. Likewise, gaming companies can move servers closer to players and use the Akamai-Macrometa integration for features like player matching, leaderboards, multi-player game lobbies and anti-cheating features. For e-commerce players competing against Amazon, the joint solution can be used to connect and stream data from local stores and fulfillment centers, enabling faster delivery times.

Macrometa will use the funding for developer education, community development, enterprise event marketing and joint customer sales with Akamai (Macrometa’s products are now available through Akamai’s sales team).

In a statement about the funding and partnership, Akamai EVP and CTO Robert Blumofe said, “Developers are fundamentally changing the way they build, deploy and run enterprise applications. Velocity and scale are more important than ever, while flexibility in where to place workloads is now paramount. By partnering with and investing in Macrometa, Akamai is helping to form and foster a single platform that meets evolving needs of developers and the apps they’re creating.”