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Solo.io

Category: AI Infrastructure

Solo.io provides cloud-native connectivity and AI-ready agentic infrastructure to connect, secure, control, and observe applications, APIs, LLMs, and AI agents across any cloud or Kubernetes environment. Solo.io was founded in 2017. The company is led by Idit Levine. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (Remote-first company). Team size: 201-500. Total funding raised: $175M total (all rounds). Latest round: Series C ($135M, Oct 2021 led by Altimeter Capital at $1B valuation). Key investors include Altimeter Capital, Redpoint, True Ventures.

Founded
2017
Headquarters
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (Remote-first company)
Team size
201-500
Total funding
$175M total (all rounds)

Value proposition

Unifies cloud connectivity and agentic AI infrastructure—API gateway, service mesh, and AI-native gateways/runtimes—built on open source (Istio, Envoy/kgateway, agentgateway, kagent) so enterprises can secure, observe, and govern apps and AI agents across hybrid and multi-cloud Kubernetes.

Products and solutions

Solo Enterprise for kgateway, Solo Enterprise for Istio, Solo Enterprise for agentgateway, Solo Enterprise for kagent, Solo Enterprise for agentregistry

Unique value

Deep leadership in Istio/Envoy plus creator/maintainer of kgateway (CNCF), agentgateway (Linux Foundation), and kagent (CNCF Sandbox)—unifying north-south API gateway, east-west mesh, and AI-native agent/LLM/MCP connectivity under enterprise distributions.

Target customer

Large enterprises and organizations adopting cloud-native, microservices, and Kubernetes architectures, particularly in regulated or complex multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments.

Industries served

Financial Services, Technology, Retail, Telecommunications, Automotive, Healthcare, Government

Technology advantage

Enterprise-grade supported distributions of leading open-source connectivity (Solo Enterprise for kgateway, Istio, agentgateway, kagent, agentregistry), reducing tool sprawl across API gateway, service mesh, and agentic AI networking in hybrid/multi-cloud Kubernetes.

How they differentiate

Differentiates via deep Istio/Envoy leadership plus purpose-built AI-native open source (agentgateway, kagent, agentregistry), offering a unified stack for north-south API traffic, east-west mesh, and agent-to-agent/tool/LLM connectivity that generalist API/mesh vendors lack.

Main competitors

Kong Inc., HashiCorp (Consul), F5 (NGINX), Google Cloud (Apigee), Microsoft (Azure API Management), Linkerd (Buoyant)

Key partnerships

Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Red Hat, HashiCorp

Notable customers

T-Mobile, SAP, BMW, USAA, Chick-fil-A, Schneider Electric, Vonage, Snyk

Major milestones

Reached $1B valuation in October 2021 after its $135M Series C funding round., Recognized as a 'Visionary' in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for API Management., Founder Idit Levine active in Istio community leadership; Solo holds Istio Steering/TOC influence., Co-developed and launched Ambient Mode for Istio with Google., Donated Gloo Gateway to CNCF as kgateway (Jan 2025)., Launched Agent Gateway / Agent Mesh (Apr 2025); contributed agentgateway to Linux Foundation (Aug 2025); Solo Enterprise for agentgateway (Oct 2025)., DEVIES Award Winner 2026 (DeveloperWeek, Jan 2026) for containers innovation., Brought NemoClaw into production agentic runtime via kagent (May 2026).

Growth metrics

Achieved unicorn status ($1B+ valuation) with Oct 2021 Series C; official site cites ~$175M total raised. Active enterprise footprint (e.g. T-Mobile, BMW, Vonage, Snyk); continued agentic product expansion and open-source scale (e.g. kagent 300+ contributors cited May 2026).

Market positioning

Positioned as a leader in cloud-native application networking and AI-ready agentic infrastructure for enterprises standardizing on Kubernetes, Istio, and open AI connectivity protocols (MCP, A2A) for APIs, services, and agents.

Geographic focus

Global, with a strong presence in North America, Europe, and APAC.

Patents and IP

Not publicly disclosed.

About Idit Levine

Idit Levine is the founder and CEO of Solo.io, a cloud-native application networking company. She has a long and successful career in the tech industry, with a focus on cloud computing, open-source software, and infrastructure. Before founding Solo.io in 2017, she was the CTO of the Cloud Management Division at Dell EMC, where she was a member of the global CTO office. She has also held technical leadership roles at several other successful startups, including Dynamic Ops (acquired by VMware), CloudSwitch (acquired by Verizon), and Intigua. Idit is a well-respected expert in the field of cloud-native technologies and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. She is also a committer to the Istio project and a member of the Technical Advisory Board for the Cloud Foundry Foundation.

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