# Modal revenue, valuation & funding

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/companies/modal/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Modal was valued at $15.75B in its $750M Series D in October 2026, and said that month it had crossed a $1B annualized revenue run rate. It's a private company with no ticker and no stated plan to go public.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

## At a glance

- Valuation: $15.75B post-money in its $750M Series D, in October 2026, led by Accel.
- Revenue: a $1B annualized run rate in October 2026, as Modal said. Run rates aren't audited results.
- Status: private. No stock ticker. No IPO plan has been stated.
- Founded: 2021, by Erik Bernhardsson and Akshat Bubna.
- CEO: [Erik Bernhardsson](https://realalpha.app/builders/erik-bernhardsson/).
- Investors: Accel, Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, Redpoint, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Amplify Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, among others.
- Products: Functions, Sandboxes and Servers, sold as Inference, Sandboxes, Training and Batch.
- Headquarters: New York, with teams in San Francisco and Stockholm. It had 200+ staff in October 2026.
- On Real Alpha: 24 moments of its people talking, from 4 interviews

## Is Modal public? Can you buy its stock?

No. Modal is a private company, so its shares don't trade on any stock exchange and it has no ticker symbol.

Modal hasn't said when or whether it plans to go public, and no IPO filing has been reported. On the 20VC podcast in November 2026, Erik Bernhardsson said he supports employee secondaries capped around 10%, as [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99) reported. He called them a way to give staff liquidity.

Its shares are held by its founders, staff and investors. Modal says on [its about page](https://modal.com/company) that it has raised over $1.2B in total. This page reports facts and gives no investment advice.

From Modal's interviews

- [Employee liquidity can strengthen AI recruiting](https://realalpha.app/s/employee-liquidity-can-strengthen-ai-recruiting/) · Erik Bernhardsson · 20VC · Nov 2, 2026

## Valuation, round by round

Its valuation went from $1.1B in September 2025 to $15.75B in October 2026, more than fourteen times in about a year.

- Oct 2026 · $15.75B · $750M · Accel · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- May 2026 · $4.65B · $355M · General Catalyst and Redpoint · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/modal-series-c)
- Sep 2025 · $1.1B · $87M · Lux Capital · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/announcing-our-series-b)

The Series C closed in two tranches, the first at $2.5B and the second at $4.65B, [Reuters](https://www.aol.com/articles/exclusive-modal-labs-valued-4-170258000.html) reported. Sacra lists a $16M Series A in October 2023, which no primary report confirms.

## Revenue

Modal doesn't publish results. It said its run rate passed $300M in May 2026 and crossed $1B in October, more than tripling in five months.

- Oct 2026 · $1B · Company · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- Sep 2026 · $825M · Estimate · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)
- May 2026 · $300M · Company · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/modal-series-c)
- Feb 2026 · about $50M · Reported · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/?p=3092191)

A run rate is a month's revenue times twelve, and it isn't audited revenue. Earlier figures differ, with Sacra estimating $160M at the end of 2025.

## How Modal makes money

Modal sells compute for AI work and charges by use. It bills by the second and charges nothing for idle time, per [its pricing page](https://modal.com/pricing).

It sources GPU capacity from many cloud companies and pools it across its customers. In May 2026 it worked with 13 cloud companies, up from five a year earlier, [Reuters](https://www.aol.com/articles/exclusive-modal-labs-valued-4-170258000.html) reported.

In November 2026 Bernhardsson said Modal is profitable on a P&L basis but cash-flow negative. He said that's because it buys GPU capacity ahead of demand, per [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99).

- **Plans.** Starter costs $0 plus compute a month and Team costs $250 plus compute a month. Enterprise pricing is custom. · [Modal's pricing page](https://modal.com/pricing)
- **Free compute.** New accounts start with $30 a month in free compute, and compute is billed by the second. · [Modal's pricing page](https://modal.com/pricing)
- **Cloud marketplaces.** Enterprise customers can buy through the AWS and GCP marketplaces and use their committed spend on Modal. · [Modal's pricing page](https://modal.com/pricing)
- **Supply.** Modal said in October 2026 that its capacity pool spans 20+ clouds. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **Oracle.** Sacra reports a partnership with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for GPU capacity. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)
- **Margins.** Bernhardsson said Modal's long-term gross margin target is 40% to 60%. · [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99)

From Modal's interviews

- [Aggregating GPU demand helps Modal manage capacity](https://realalpha.app/s/aggregating-gpu-demand-helps-modal-manage-capacity/) · Erik Bernhardsson · 20VC · Nov 2, 2026
- [GPU procurement remains a fragmented, informal market](https://realalpha.app/s/gpu-procurement-remains-a-fragmented-informal-market/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026
- [Renting GPUs avoids some risks but creates long-term exposure](https://realalpha.app/s/renting-gpus-avoids-some-risks-but-creates-long-term/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026
- [Modal qualifies GPU vendors with specs, tests, and support history](https://realalpha.app/s/modal-qualifies-gpu-vendors-with-specs-tests-and-support/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026

## Products

Modal's platform has three building blocks, per [its site](https://modal.com). Functions run serverless compute, Sandboxes run untrusted code, and Servers handle low-latency LLM inference. It sells them as four product lines, Inference, Sandboxes, Training and Batch.

Bernhardsson has said Modal built its own filesystem, container runtime and scheduler. He says that work lets models load in seconds.

- **Sandboxes** (2023). Modal launched them after it saw people using LLMs to generate code. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **A $300M product.** Modal said in October 2026 that Sandboxes alone is a $300M run rate product. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **Sandbox scale.** Modal says it has spun up close to 3 billion sandboxes, and they scale to a million running at once. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **Functions and Servers.** Functions run serverless compute. Servers handle low-latency LLM inference. · [Modal](https://modal.com)

From Modal's interviews

- [Modal’s early sandbox bet became a major revenue line](https://realalpha.app/s/modals-early-sandbox-bet-became-a-major-revenue-line/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026
- [Modal’s sandbox product grew from a small experiment to a third of revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/modals-sandbox-product-grew-from-a-small-experiment-to-a/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026
- [Modal built core infrastructure to make cold starts faster](https://realalpha.app/s/modal-built-core-infrastructure-to-make-cold-starts-faster/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026
- [Snapshotting can make massive test parallelism practical](https://realalpha.app/s/snapshotting-can-make-massive-test-parallelism-practical/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026

## Customers

Modal hasn't published a customer count. In October 2026 it said usage had tripled since its Series C in May, per [its blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d).

Its first real revenue came from one Stable Diffusion customer. Bernhardsson has said monthly revenue went from $100 in November 2022 to $30,000 in January 2023.

- **[Cognition](https://realalpha.app/companies/cognition/),** which builds background agents on Modal. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **[Hebbia](https://realalpha.app/companies/hebbia/),** which also builds background agents on Modal. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **Ramp and Linear,** named by Modal as customers building background agents. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **DoorDash,** named by Modal as a customer. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **TypeSafe AI.** An executive says Modal served 1 trillion tokens for its Jev product within three days of launch. · [Modal](https://modal.com)

From Modal's interviews

- [A Stable Diffusion customer brought Modal its first meaningful revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/a-stable-diffusion-customer-brought-modal-its-first/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026
- [Most workloads should use the cheapest GPU that fits](https://realalpha.app/s/most-workloads-should-use-the-cheapest-gpu-that-fits/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026
- [Agent training data makes old APIs harder to retire](https://realalpha.app/s/agent-training-data-makes-old-apis-harder-to-retire/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026
- [Model ownership matters for some workflows, not all](https://realalpha.app/s/model-ownership-matters-for-some-workflows-not-all/) · Erik Bernhardsson · 20VC · Nov 2, 2026

## Leadership

Modal had a team of 200+ across New York, San Francisco and Stockholm in October 2026, per [its blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d). A month earlier [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/source-inference-provider-modal-labs-closing-in-on-750m-round-at-15-75b-valuation/) estimated it at roughly 150 employees.

- **[Erik Bernhardsson](https://realalpha.app/builders/erik-bernhardsson/),** co-founder and CEO. He previously led Spotify's music recommendation and data infrastructure teams. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/source-inference-provider-modal-labs-closing-in-on-750m-round-at-15-75b-valuation/)
- **Akshat Bubna,** co-founder and CTO. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/source-inference-provider-modal-labs-closing-in-on-750m-round-at-15-75b-valuation/)

From Modal's interviews

- [Agents write most of Modal’s merged code](https://realalpha.app/s/agents-write-most-of-modals-merged-code/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026
- [Modal’s FDEs turn customer work into product features](https://realalpha.app/s/modals-fdes-turn-customer-work-into-product-features/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026

## Who owns Modal?

Its founders, staff and investors. As a private company it doesn't publish who holds what, and no stake has been disclosed.

Modal says it has raised over $1.2B in total. Sacra lists a $16M Series A led by Redpoint in October 2023 and a $7M seed led by Amplify Partners in 2022, though no primary report confirms either.

- **Accel** led the $750M Series D in October 2026. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **General Catalyst and Redpoint** led the $355M Series C in May 2026. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/modal-series-c)
- **Lux Capital** led the $87M Series B in September 2025. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/announcing-our-series-b)
- **Kleiner Perkins** joined in the Series D. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **Menlo Ventures, Amplify Partners and Bain Capital Ventures** took part in the Series D as existing investors. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- **Creandum** is named among its investors on Modal's about page. · [Modal's about page](https://modal.com/company)

From Modal's interviews

- [Founders should not maximize every round's valuation](https://realalpha.app/s/founders-should-not-maximize-every-rounds-valuation/) · Erik Bernhardsson · 20VC · Nov 2, 2026

## Competitors

[Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/) names four direct competitors and two GPU infrastructure rivals. Bernhardsson says Modal sets itself apart with software rather than raw compute capacity.

- **[Baseten](https://realalpha.app/companies/baseten/),** a direct competitor, per Sacra. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)
- **[Together AI](https://realalpha.app/companies/together-ai/),** a direct competitor, per Sacra. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)
- **Replicate and RunPod,** direct competitors, per Sacra. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)
- **[CoreWeave](https://realalpha.app/companies/#coreweave),** a GPU infrastructure rival, per Sacra. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)
- **[Lambda](https://realalpha.app/companies/lambda/),** a GPU infrastructure rival, per Sacra. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)

What its people said about the competition

- [Modal sees software as its advantage over neoclouds](https://realalpha.app/s/modal-sees-software-as-its-advantage-over-neoclouds/) · Erik Bernhardsson · The Information's TITV · Oct 16, 2026
- [Inference providers need a platform beyond token serving](https://realalpha.app/s/inference-providers-need-a-platform-beyond-token-serving/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026
- [Neoclouds scale by pre-selling GPU capacity](https://realalpha.app/s/neoclouds-scale-by-pre-selling-gpu-capacity/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026
- [Inference providers need a broader platform to avoid commoditization](https://realalpha.app/s/inference-providers-need-a-broader-platform-to-avoid/) · Erik Bernhardsson · 20VC · Nov 2, 2026

## Timeline and latest news

- Nov 2, 2026 · Bernhardsson said on 20VC that Modal is profitable on a P&L basis but cash-flow negative. · [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99)
- Oct 14, 2026 · Announced a $750M Series D at a $15.75B post-money valuation, led by Accel. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- Oct 14, 2026 · Said it had crossed a $1B annualized run rate. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- Oct 14, 2026 · Said Sandboxes alone had become a $300M run rate product. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d)
- Sep 28, 2026 · TechCrunch reported Modal was nearing a $750M round at a $15.75B valuation. · [TechCrunch (via Yahoo Finance)](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/source-inference-provider-modal-labs-212918583.html)
- Sep 24, 2026 · Bloomberg reported Modal was in talks to raise at a $15B valuation. · [Tech Funding News](https://techfundingnews.com/modal-labs-funding-talks-15b-valuation-ai-inference/)
- Sep 2026 · Sacra estimated its run rate at $825M. · [Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/)
- May 21, 2026 · Announced a $355M Series C at a $4.65B post-money valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/modal-series-c)
- May 21, 2026 · Reuters reported Modal worked with 13 cloud companies, up from five a year earlier. · [Reuters (via AOL)](https://www.aol.com/articles/exclusive-modal-labs-valued-4-170258000.html)
- Feb 2026 · TechCrunch reported talks at about $2.5B. Bernhardsson denied actively fundraising. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/?p=3092191)
- Feb 2026 · TechCrunch's sources put its run rate at about $50M. · [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/?p=3092191)
- Sep 29, 2025 · Announced an $87M Series B at a $1.1B valuation, led by Lux Capital. · [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/announcing-our-series-b)

## In their own words, and what followed

- [Inference providers need a platform beyond token serving](https://realalpha.app/s/inference-providers-need-a-platform-beyond-token-serving/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026
  > “they want to buy like a multi-product set of tools”
  Reported after · In November 2026 he said Modal's long-term gross margin target is 40% to 60%. · [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99)

- [Renting GPUs avoids some risks but creates long-term exposure](https://realalpha.app/s/renting-gpus-avoids-some-risks-but-creates-long-term/) · Erik Bernhardsson · Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026
  > “I don't think it's good in general for software companies to own hard assets”
  Reported after · In November 2026 he said Modal is profitable on a P&L basis but cash-flow negative, because it buys GPU capacity ahead of demand. · [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99)

## Questions people ask

### Is Modal a public company? Can I buy Modal stock?

No. Modal is private and has no ticker, so its shares aren't sold on any exchange.

### When will Modal IPO?

Modal hasn't announced a plan to go public, and no filing has been reported. Its CEO supports employee secondaries capped around 10%, per [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99).

### Who owns Modal?

Its founders, staff and investors, including Accel, Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, Redpoint, Lux Capital and Menlo Ventures. Stakes haven't been disclosed.

### Who is the CEO of Modal?

[Erik Bernhardsson](https://realalpha.app/builders/erik-bernhardsson/), who co-founded it. He previously led Spotify's music recommendation and data infrastructure teams.

### Who founded Modal?

Erik Bernhardsson and Akshat Bubna, in 2021, per [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/source-inference-provider-modal-labs-closing-in-on-750m-round-at-15-75b-valuation/).

### How much is Modal worth?

$15.75B post-money in its $750M Series D in October 2026, per [Modal's blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d).

### How much revenue does Modal make?

It said it crossed a $1B annualized run rate in October 2026, up from more than $300M in May, per [its blog](https://modal.com/blog/1-billion-annualized-run-rate-series-d).

### Is Modal profitable?

Its CEO said in November 2026 that it is profitable on a P&L basis but cash-flow negative, per [BigGo Finance](https://finance.biggo.com/news/b3c530bcbd4c3b99). He said it buys GPU capacity ahead of demand.

### How does Modal make money?

It charges for compute by the second, with plans from $0 to $250 a month plus compute and custom Enterprise pricing, per [its pricing page](https://modal.com/pricing).

### Who are Modal's customers?

It names DoorDash, Cognition, Ramp, Linear and Hebbia. It says it has spun up close to 3 billion sandboxes.

### Where is Modal headquartered?

New York, with teams in San Francisco and Stockholm.

### Who are Modal's competitors?

[Sacra](https://sacra.com/c/modal-labs/) names Baseten, Replicate, RunPod and Together AI, plus CoreWeave and Lambda Labs on GPU infrastructure.

## Every moment from Modal's people

### Modal CEO: Has Open-Source LLM Inference Peaked? | What Happens to the Cost of Compute
20VC · Nov 2, 2026

- [Inference providers need a broader platform to avoid commoditization](https://realalpha.app/s/inference-providers-need-a-broader-platform-to-avoid/) · 5 min
- [Aggregating GPU demand helps Modal manage capacity](https://realalpha.app/s/aggregating-gpu-demand-helps-modal-manage-capacity/) · 4 min
- [Infrastructure products can take years to find their killer use](https://realalpha.app/s/infrastructure-products-can-take-years-to-find-their-killer/) · 4 min
- [Post-training favors tasks with short feedback loops](https://realalpha.app/s/post-training-favors-tasks-with-short-feedback-loops/) · 3 min
- [Employee liquidity can strengthen AI recruiting](https://realalpha.app/s/employee-liquidity-can-strengthen-ai-recruiting/) · 3 min
- [Model ownership matters for some workflows, not all](https://realalpha.app/s/model-ownership-matters-for-some-workflows-not-all/) · 3 min
- [Founders should not maximize every round's valuation](https://realalpha.app/s/founders-should-not-maximize-every-rounds-valuation/) · 3 min

### Modal CEO on the Future of Inference, the Chaos of the GPU Market & Origins of the Sandbox Bet
Unsupervised Learning · Oct 28, 2026

- [Modal’s early sandbox bet became a major revenue line](https://realalpha.app/s/modals-early-sandbox-bet-became-a-major-revenue-line/) · 5 min
- [Modal built core infrastructure to make cold starts faster](https://realalpha.app/s/modal-built-core-infrastructure-to-make-cold-starts-faster/) · 3 min
- [NeoCloud growth depends on debt and GPU resale value](https://realalpha.app/s/neocloud-growth-depends-on-debt-and-gpu-resale-value/) · 5 min
- [GPU procurement remains a fragmented, informal market](https://realalpha.app/s/gpu-procurement-remains-a-fragmented-informal-market/) · 4 min
- [Inference providers need a platform beyond token serving](https://realalpha.app/s/inference-providers-need-a-platform-beyond-token-serving/) · 4 min
- [Agents write most of Modal’s merged code](https://realalpha.app/s/agents-write-most-of-modals-merged-code/) · 3 min
- [Agents make software deprecations harder](https://realalpha.app/s/agents-make-software-deprecations-harder/) · 3 min
- [Most workloads should use the cheapest GPU that fits](https://realalpha.app/s/most-workloads-should-use-the-cheapest-gpu-that-fits/) · 4 min

### Why AI Compute Comes in Rectangles — Erik Bernhardsson, Modal
Latent Space · Oct 22, 2026

- [Renting GPUs avoids some risks but creates long-term exposure](https://realalpha.app/s/renting-gpus-avoids-some-risks-but-creates-long-term/) · 6 min
- [Neoclouds scale by pre-selling GPU capacity](https://realalpha.app/s/neoclouds-scale-by-pre-selling-gpu-capacity/) · 4 min
- [Snapshotting can make massive test parallelism practical](https://realalpha.app/s/snapshotting-can-make-massive-test-parallelism-practical/) · 3 min
- [Modal’s sandbox product grew from a small experiment to a third of revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/modals-sandbox-product-grew-from-a-small-experiment-to-a/) · 4 min
- [A Stable Diffusion customer brought Modal its first meaningful revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/a-stable-diffusion-customer-brought-modal-its-first/) · 3 min
- [Modal qualifies GPU vendors with specs, tests, and support history](https://realalpha.app/s/modal-qualifies-gpu-vendors-with-specs-tests-and-support/) · 3 min
- [Agent training data makes old APIs harder to retire](https://realalpha.app/s/agent-training-data-makes-old-apis-harder-to-retire/) · 4 min
- [Modal’s FDEs turn customer work into product features](https://realalpha.app/s/modals-fdes-turn-customer-work-into-product-features/) · 2 min

### The Pentagon’s CTO Explains the Anthropic Rift and Superintelligence Task Force
The Information's TITV · Oct 16, 2026

- [Modal sees software as its advantage over neoclouds](https://realalpha.app/s/modal-sees-software-as-its-advantage-over-neoclouds/) · 3 min

## People on Real Alpha

- [Erik Bernhardsson](https://realalpha.app/builders/erik-bernhardsson/), Co-founder & CEO, Modal

## How this page is sourced

Each figure links to the filing, company statement or news report it came from, with its date. Run rates are what reporters were told, not audited results; estimates and unconfirmed reports are marked. Quotes are what each person said on the record, with the minute they said it.