This Modal Labs company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Modal Labs works in AI infrastructure, with a focus on serverless compute for AI and agent sandboxes. It was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in New York, New York, United States. Its latest valuation on record is US$4.65 billion (May 2026). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.
Revenue
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported revenue growth | Annualised revenue reported to have risen from about US$60 million in September 2025 to about US$300 million (Reuters, via Dealroom) | May 2026 | Dealroom |
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | Series C | US$355M | US$4.65B (second tranche; first tranche at US$2.5B) | Redpoint Ventures and General Catalyst (leads); Accel, Menlo Ventures | Dealroom |
| 2025 | Series B | See source | About US$1.1B | See source | Dealroom |
Modal Labs timeline
Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.
- 2021 — Modal Labs is founded in New York by Erik Bernhardsson (CEO) and Akshat Bubna.
- 2025 — Series B: See source, valuing the company at About US$1.1B.
- May 2026 — Series C: US$355M, valuing the company at US$4.65B (second tranche; first tranche at US$2.5B). Investors: Redpoint Ventures and General Catalyst (leads); Accel, Menlo Ventures.
- May 2026 — Reported revenue growth: Annualised revenue reported to have risen from about US$60 million in September 2025 to about US$300 million (Reuters, via Dealroom).
Investors
Overview
Modal Labs runs a cloud platform that lets developers run code on GPUs and CPUs without managing servers. A developer writes ordinary Python, adds a few lines describing the hardware needed, and Modal starts containers in seconds, scales them up to thousands of machines when demand spikes, and scales to zero when idle, charging only for the time used. It's used for running AI models, fine-tuning, batch data processing and, increasingly, as secure "sandboxes" where AI agents can write and execute code. That last use case has driven explosive growth as AI coding agents have spread.
Erik Bernhardsson, the CEO, and Akshat Bubna founded Modal in New York in 2021. Bernhardsson previously built Spotify's music recommendation system and created Annoy and Luigi, widely used open-source tools, before serving as chief technology officer of Better.com. He started Modal after years of frustration with how slow and complicated cloud infrastructure was for data and machine learning work.
Products
- Serverless functions: run Python code on demand with automatic scaling and fast container start-up.
- GPU access: on-demand access to a range of Nvidia GPUs across multiple cloud providers.
- Inference endpoints: deploy AI models as web endpoints that scale with traffic.
- Batch jobs and training: parallel processing and fine-tuning jobs.
- Sandboxes: isolated, secure environments where AI agents and users can run untrusted code, used by coding agent companies and AI labs.
Funding
Modal raised early funding from investors including Amplify Partners and Lux Capital. A 2025 round valued it at about US$1.1 billion. In early 2026 it was reported to be in talks at about US$2.5 billion. In May 2026 it announced a US$355 million Series C led by Redpoint Ventures and General Catalyst, with Accel and Menlo Ventures, raised in two tranches: the first at US$2.5 billion and the second, after strong investor demand, at US$4.65 billion. We use the higher figure as its latest valuation.
Revenue
According to Reuters, as summarised by Dealroom, Modal's annualised revenue rose from about US$60 million in September 2025 to roughly US$300 million by the time of the Series C, a fivefold increase that the company attributed largely to demand from AI coding and agent workloads. Because these are reported figures rather than audited results, we show revenue as not disclosed in the fact tiles.
Business model
Modal charges by the second for compute and memory used, with prices that vary by hardware type. Customers don't pay for idle servers, which makes it attractive for spiky or unpredictable workloads. Modal buys or rents GPU and CPU capacity from cloud providers and data centres and resells it with its software layer on top; its margins depend on how efficiently it packs workloads onto that capacity.
Competition
Modal competes with inference platforms such as Baseten, Together AI and Replicate; with GPU clouds such as CoreWeave and Lambda; with hyperscalers' serverless and AI services; and, in sandboxes, with companies such as E2B and Daytona. Its advantages are developer experience, very fast container start-up and flexibility for many workload types.
Modal Labs at a glance
Modal Labs is a New York AI infrastructure company founded in 2021 by Erik Bernhardsson and Akshat Bubna. It offers serverless GPU and CPU compute and secure sandboxes for AI agents. It raised a US$355 million Series C in May 2026 at up to US$4.65 billion, led by Redpoint and General Catalyst, with annualised revenue reported at about US$300 million.
Timeline
- 2021: founded in New York.
- 2023: launches GPU support as generative AI demand rises.
- 2025: becomes a unicorn at about US$1.1 billion; sandboxes gain traction with AI agent builders.
- May 2026: raises US$355 million at up to US$4.65 billion.
Why AI agents need sandboxes
AI coding agents write code and need to run it to check whether it works, install packages, run tests and explore data. Running AI-generated code directly on a company's own servers is risky, because the code could be buggy or malicious. Sandboxes provide isolated environments that start instantly, run the code safely and shut down afterwards. As agents perform millions of such tasks, demand for fast, secure, cheap sandboxes has surged, turning what was a niche feature into a major business line for Modal.
Who uses Modal
Modal's customers include AI startups running models and agents, AI labs needing burst compute, coding tool companies, and data teams processing large batches of audio, video or text. Many are developers who value not having to manage Kubernetes or GPU clusters.
Risks
- Customer concentration: rapid growth may depend on a few large AI customers.
- GPU costs: capacity prices and availability affect margins.
- Competition: hyperscalers and well-funded infrastructure startups target the same workloads.
Questions for engineering teams
- How fast do containers start, and how does cost compare at your usage pattern?
- What isolation and security guarantees do sandboxes provide?
- Which regions and GPU types are available?
Valuation context
Modal's valuation rose roughly fourfold in about a year, driven by reported revenue growth from AI agent workloads. At US$4.65 billion and reported annualised revenue near US$300 million, the multiple is high but lower than many AI application companies, reflecting the infrastructure-like economics of reselling compute. Our guide to SaaS valuation multiples explains how such comparisons work.
Latest developments (October 2026)
Modal raised a US$355 million Series C in May 2026 at US$4.65 billion, led by Redpoint and General Catalyst, as AI agent sandboxes drove its annualised revenue from about US$60 million in September 2025 to nearly US$300 million. In September 2026 Bloomberg reported talks at about US$15 billion, and later reports described a round of about US$750 million at roughly US$15.75 billion, according to Crypto Briefing; we had not seen a confirmed close by our update. See our AI cloud providers guide.
What to watch
Watch revenue growth, sandbox adoption by AI labs, new funding and competition in AI infrastructure. Our guide to AI infrastructure companies covers related firms.
Takeaways
Developers can run AI workloads without managing infrastructure. Founders can see how a developer-experience focus captured a new AI use case. Investors should watch whether revenue growth persists beyond the initial agent boom.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.
Frequently asked questions
What does Modal Labs do?
Modal Labs is a ai infrastructure / serverless compute for ai and agent sandboxes company headquartered in New York, New York, United States. It was founded in 2021.
What is Modal Labs's valuation?
Modal Labs was valued at US$4.65 billion as of May 2026, according to Dealroom. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds or share sales and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does Modal Labs make?
Modal Labs is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Figures on third-party sites are usually modelled estimates rather than numbers reported by the company.
What was Modal Labs's latest funding round?
The most recent financing we have verified is a series c in May 2026: US$355M, at a valuation of US$4.65B (second tranche; first tranche at US$2.5B). Source: Dealroom.
Who are Modal Labs's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include Redpoint Ventures, General Catalyst, Accel, Menlo Ventures, Lux Capital and Amplify Partners.
Who founded Modal Labs?
Modal Labs was founded in 2021 by Erik Bernhardsson (CEO) and Akshat Bubna.
Is Modal Labs a public company?
No. Modal Labs is a private company (private, venture backed), so its shares are not traded on a stock exchange and it isn't required to publish its financial results.
Where is Modal Labs headquartered?
Modal Labs is headquartered in New York, New York, United States.