Epsagon helps developers monitor and troubleshoot microservices cloud-based applications faster than ever. In approximately five minutes, developers can deploy Epsagon as a flexible tracing solution that works within containers and in serverless environments. The SaaS platform offers several tiers based on the number of traces and the platform is already being used by customers like Via and eMarketer.
AlleyWatch sat down with CEO and Cofounder Nitzan Shapira to learn more about the company’s technology, future plans, and recent funding round, which brings the total funding raised to $20M across two rounds.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
USVP, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and StageOne Ventures. The current round with a Series A of $16M.
Tell us about the product or service that Epsagon offers.
Epsagon provides a SaaS platform for monitoring and troubleshooting microservices cloud-based applications, helping developers and DevOps solve production problems faster.
What inspired the start of Epsagon?
The huge growth of the cloud and modern application development, creating the need for new tooling.
How is Epsagon different?
We are the only solution to provide distributed tracing for any workload, with a 5-minute setup.
What market does Epsagon target and how big is it?
Epsagon targets roughly the APM (application performance monitoring) market, which is estimated in billions of dollars.
Who do you consider to be your primary competitors?
Incumbent players – AppDynamics, Dynatrace, New Relic, Datadog. There are also some startups in the monitoring and troubleshooting industry.
What’s your business model?
Epsagon is offered as a SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution with different Tiers, priced by the number of traces digested by Epsagon from the customer’s application environment.
What was the funding process like?
We prepared a list of investors who we believe will be the most valuable for the next stage of the company and launched a pretty straightforward process.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Our product is very technical, and some investors are not as technical, thus it may be challenging to explain the strong differentiation of Epsagon vs. competition to them.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Strong team, massive and growing market, winning product and technology, and fast-growing customer traction.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Build a U.S. management team in New York City, mostly commercial (sales and marketing), rapidly accelerate our customer base, and develop more exciting product features.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Think of an appealing story for raising capital. Why are you going to be worth $1B in 5 years? Show your strengths – team, technology, anything.
Think of an appealing story for raising capital. Why are you going to be worth $1B in 5 years?
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Fast growth and market leadership, U.S. expansion.
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