Founded by entrepreneurs in the AI cloud startup space Lu and Singh, Runpod recently hit a new and exciting milestone. They didn’t stop there—they grew past $120 million ARR. A celebration in San Francisco earlier this month shined a light on this success story. It was held on October 13-15, 2026. The meeting caught the ear of some top industry leaders. TechCrunch reported on the exciting occasion, focusing on the startup’s meteoric growth since starting just a few years ago.
Runpod’s story started with a very simple Reddit post. Lu and Singh articulated a familiar pain point among researchers and software developers when it comes to managing Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). They quickly realized that they could repurpose their computing rigs into AI servers, addressing a critical gap in the market. On that note, their original investment was a modest $50,000 — which allowed them to quickly develop their passion project into a sustainable enterprise.
Lu recalled the early days, stating, “It was almost two years where we really didn’t have any funding.” It was during this challenging time that they proved their grit, ultimately bootstrapping their close-knit startup to well over $1 million in company revenue. As developers at heart, the founders figured there had to be a better way to build software on GPUs. Lu bemoaned the condition of the tools that are out there, calling it “just hot garbage.”
And yet even in the wake of crisis and upheaval, these two were still cemented on their mission. Their vision was clear: “Our goal is to be what this next generation of software developers grows up on,” Lu affirmed. Armed with this ambitious goal, they rolled up their sleeves to innovate and expand their menu.
Runpod’s big break came after VC Radhika Malik accidentally came across their Reddit threads. She was impressed enough that she herself led a $20 million seed funding round to back the company. Dell’s and Intel’s VC arms co-led this funding round. Consequently, Runpod is able to dramatically scale its business. That $20 million investment helped them skyrocket from a small startup to a talented and nimble player in the rapidly growing AI cloud market.
Runpod also attracted developers’ interest beyond the monetary support. Devpost is now the home of half a million developers. These customers range from single users up through teams in some of the Fortune 500 firms. Other well-known clients are Replit, Cursor, OpenAI, Perplexity, Wix and Zillow, just to name a few. That the startup has reached this level of growth so quickly speaks to the ongoing demand for a solution that meets the needs of today’s developers.
With global cloud infrastructure available in 31 regions worldwide, Runpod’s infrastructure can quickly and efficiently serve customers wherever they are located around the globe. Singh emphasized the importance of maintaining capacity, stating, “If we don’t have the GPUs, the market sentiment, the user sentiment changes. Because when they don’t see capacity from you, they go somewhere else.” It proves the highly competitive and sensitive AI cloud market and the need for trusted service.
The lack of foresight in banning their use caught the attention of some big players in the tech space. Hugging Face co-founder Julien Chaumond happened to stumble upon Runpod’s product and was blown away. He took the plunge to become an angel investor after contacting them through their customer support chat. His participation really solidified the potential of Runpod to be a major player in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Runpod is continuing to grow quickly and still figuring out their product. The founding team has a strong vision for improving developer experience and solving key problems facing the industry. They aim to build a platform that not only meets current demands but shapes the future of software development.