Cloud-based data-warehousing company
Snowflake Inc. is an American cloud-based data storage company. Headquartered in Bozeman, Montana , it operates a platform that allows for data analysis and simultaneous access of data sets with minimal latency .[ 1] Amazon Web Services , Microsoft Azure , and Google Cloud Platform . As of November 2024[update] Forbes Global 2000 , and processed 4.2 billion daily queries across its platform.[ 1]
History
Snowflake Inc. was founded in July 2012 in San Mateo, California , by Benoît Dageville, Thierry Cruanes and Marcin Żukowski. Dageville and Cruanes previously worked as data architects at Oracle Corporation ; Żukowski was a co-founder of Vectorwise . Mike Speiser, a venture capitalist at Sutter Hill Ventures , which provided early funding to the company, was the company's first CEO.[ 2]
In June 2014, Bob Muglia , formerly of Microsoft , was named CEO. In October 2014, Snowflake came out of stealth mode ; at that time it was used by 80 organizations.[ 3] [ 4]
Snowflake has run on Amazon Web Services since 2014,[ 5] [ 6] Microsoft Azure since 2018,[ 7] Google Cloud Platform since 2019.[ 8] [ 9]
In June 2015, Snowflake launched its first product, its cloud data warehouse .[ 10]
In May 2019, Frank Slootman , formerly CEO of ServiceNow , joined Snowflake as its CEO.[ 8]
In June 2019, the company launched Snowflake Data Exchange.[ 11]
In December 2020, the company added Knoema as a data provider in the Snowflake Data Marketplace.[ 12]
In May 2021, the company became a distributed company , with a principal executive office in Bozeman, Montana.[ 13]
In October 2022, the company acquired a 5% stake in advanced TV advertising firm OpenAP.[ 14]
On February 28, 2024, Frank Slootman retired as CEO and was replaced by Sridhar Ramaswamy .[ 15]
2024 data breach
In 2024, customers of Snowflake were targeted as part of the 2024 Snowflake mass data breach .[ 16] [ 17] [ 18] [ 19] Data breaches affected Ticketmaster ,[ 20] Advance Auto Parts ,[ 21] Santander Bank , Neiman Marcus , LendingTree , AT&T , Pure Storage , Teg.com.au,[ 22] Bausch Health .[ 23] waifu of the hacking group "The Comm") was arrested by Kitchener, Ontario , Canada, police (at the request of the U.S.) on October 30, 2024; a Washington state court has issued an indictment on charges of conspiracy , computer fraud and abuse, extortion , and aggravated identity theft .[ 24] [ 25] [ 26]
Funding
In 2012, Snowflake raised $5 million in a Series A round . In October 2014, it raised $26 million.[ 3]
In June 2015, the company raised $45 million.[ 27] [ 10] [ 28] [ 29] [ 30]
In January 2018, the company raised $263 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, making it a unicorn .[ 31]
In October 2018, Snowflake raised $450 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital , at a $3.5 billion valuation.[ 3] [ 32]
On February 7, 2020, the company raised $479 million. At that time, it had 3,400 active customers.[ 33]
On September 16, 2020, Snowflake became a public company via an initial public offering , raising $3.4 billion in one of the largest software IPOs and the largest to double on its first day of trading.[ 34] [ 35] [ 36] [ 37] [ 38]
References
^ a b c "US SEC: Form 10-K Snowflake, Inc" . U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . March 26, 2024.^ Anders, George (September 4, 2019). "You're never too old to excel: How Snowflake thrives with 'dinosaur' cofounders and a 60-year-old CEO" . LinkedIn ^ a b c Dignan, Larry (October 22, 2018). "Snowflake raises $450 million in another VC round, valued at $3.5 billion" . ZDNet ^ Bass, Dina (October 21, 2014). "Snowflake Takes Aim at Amazon, Hadoop With New Data Service" Bloomberg News ^ Handy, Alex (October 23, 2014). "Snowflake offers cloud data warehouse as a service, cheaply" . SD Times ^ Wingfield, Nick (October 21, 2014). "Longtime Microsoft Executive Opens Cloud Database Start-Up" The New York Times ^ Brust, Andrew (July 12, 2018). "Snowflake's cloud data warehouse comes to Microsoft Azure" . ZDNet ^ a b Taulli, Tom (June 5, 2019). "Snowflake: The AI Force Multiplier" . Forbes ^ Ichhpurani, Kevin (June 4, 2019). "Announcing Snowflake on Google Cloud Platform" . Google Cloud Platform ^ a b Hesseldahl, Arik (June 23, 2015). "Big Data Startup Snowflake Raises $45 Million, Launches First Product" . Vox Media ^ "Snowflake Announces Data Exchange to Break Down Data Barriers" (Press release). PR Newswire . June 4, 2019.^ Gogineni, Manasa (December 21, 2020). "Knoema announces acquisition by Eldridge and partnership with Snowflake" . VentureBeat ^ Levy, Ari (May 26, 2021). "Snowflake relocates executive office from California to Bozeman, Montana, as company goes distributed" . CNBC ^ Sharma, Shubham (October 17, 2022). "Snowflake acquires stake in OpenAP to set up data clean room for advertisers" . VentureBeat ^ Vanian, Jonathan (February 28, 2024). "Snowflake says Frank Slootman is retiring as CEO; stock plunges 20%" . CNBC ^ "The Snowflake Attack May Be Turning Into One of the Largest Data Breaches Ever" . WIRED ^ Whittaker, Zach (June 5, 2024). "Hundreds of Snowflake customer passwords found online are linked to info-stealing malware" . TechCrunch ^ Gatlan, Sergiu (June 5, 2024). "Advance Auto Parts stolen data for sale after Snowflake attack" . Bleeping Computer ^ Culafi, Alexander (June 10, 2024). "Mandiant: 'Exposed credentials' led to Snowflake attacks" . TechTarget ^ Whittaker, Zack (May 31, 2024). "Live Nation confirms Ticketmaster was hacked, says personal information stolen in data breach" . TechCrunch ^ Grieg, Jonathan (July 11, 2024). "Advance Auto Parts says more than 2 million impacted by data breach" . Recorded Future ^ Toulas, Bill (July 12, 2024). "Massive AT&T data breach exposes call logs of 109 million customers" . BleepingComputer ^ Cox, Joseph (July 30, 2024). "Hacker Breaches Pharma Giant Bausch Health, Wants to Extort DEA" . 404 Media ^ Pender, Terry (November 29, 2024). "Accused Kitchener hacker unmasked after threatening woman online" . The Record . ^ "US indicts Snowflake hackers who extorted $2.5 million from 3 victims" . BleepingComputer .^ "Indictment" – via DocumentCloud.^ Vanian, Jonathan (June 23, 2015). "This big data startup is as unique as a snowflake" Fortune ^ Brust, Andrew (June 26, 2015). "Cloud data warehouse race heats up" . ZDNet ^ Dignan, Larry (April 5, 2017). "Snowflake Computing raises $100 million to expand cloud data warehouse footprint" . ZDNet ^ Magistretti, Bérénice; Novet, Jordan (April 5, 2017). "Cloud data warehouse startup Snowflake raises $100 million led by Iconiq" . VentureBeat ^ Miller, Ron (January 25, 2018). "Snowflake lands massive $263 million investment on unicorn valuation" . TechCrunch ^ Krazit, Tom (October 11, 2018). "With huge new $450M funding round, Snowflake Computing has now raised almost $1 billion" . GeekWire ^ Miller, Ron (February 9, 2020). "After $479M round on $12.4B valuation, Snowflake CEO says IPO is next step" . TechCrunch ^ Driebusch, Corrie (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake's Stock Price Soars in IPO" The Wall Street Journal ^ Bary, Emily (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake IPO surge makes it the priciest tech stock by a mile" MarketWatch ^ Zara, Christopher (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake, JFrog IPO: Software stocks soar in market debut" . Fast Company ^ Pressman, Aaron (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake CEO: Doubling of stock price after IPO reflects 'frothy' market" . Fortune ^ La Monica, Paul R. (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake Shares More than Double. It's the Biggest Software IPO Ever" . CNN
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