On EQT Ventures’ investment in Fly.io, a new public cloud for developers

We’re not going to say we’re “thrilled” to be leading Fly.io’s Series C, because Kurt Mackey probably does not condone that kind of language on the internet. But we do think the new public cloud that Kurt, Jerome, and the team at Fly.io are building is kind of a big deal.

Modern apps with a global user base — and in our very online age, that’s all the apps — should be offering users a real-time experience if they want to keep them happy. Many, if not most, don’t, because delivering that snappy experience is an expensive nightmare. Fly.io is changing that by making it delightful to build and deploy default-global apps, developed in your framework of choice.

Fly.io maintains its servers in 36 (and counting) locations around the world to deliver any web app with the highest possible availability and the lowest possible latency. In the early days of the company’s existence, startups and greenfield project teams chose Fly.io for its ease of use (simple CLI; works with most popular frameworks; deploys anything in a Docker container), its transparent pricing (usage-based; scales up and down to zero), and a bunch of other nice features (persistent storage volumes; multi-region Postgres). More recently, the team has focused on the enterprise, bringing increased reliability, SSL management, and fast internal WireGuard to larger and larger companies. They are also releasing GPUs across their regions to support AI inference applications.

Reader, it’s working. Fly.io’s growth curve makes a hockey stick look laid back.

A lot of digital ink has been spilled about the team and what they’ve done in the past, but we wanted to also share some words about what they’re like. They’re incredibly thoughtful about interviewing, team-building, and management culture. They hold a high quality bar and they iterate fast. They’re constantly overdelivering on even seemingly small things, which compounds over time. They’re paranoid and never satisfied, but they don’t let that make them crazy — everyone we’ve met has been humble, respectful, and kind.

So yes, fine, we’ll say it: we are thrilled to be along for the ride.