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Snowflake Inc.

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Snowflake Inc.
Company typePublic
FoundedJuly 23, 2012; 11 years ago (2012-07-23)
Founders
  • Benoît Dageville
  • Thierry Cruanes
  • Marcin Żukowski
HeadquartersBozeman, Montana, U.S.
Key people
ServicesCloud Data Platform
RevenueIncrease US$2.806 billion (2024)
Decrease US$−1.09 billion (2024)
Decrease US$−836 million (2024)
Total assetsIncrease US$8.223 billion (2024)
Total equityDecrease US$5.180 billion (2024)
Number of employees
7,004 (2024)
Websitewww.snowflake.com Edit this at Wikidata
Footnotes / references
Financials as of January 31, 2024.[1]

Snowflake Inc. is an American cloud computing–based data cloud company based in Bozeman, Montana. It was founded in July 2012 and was publicly launched in October 2014 after two years in stealth mode.[2][3]

The firm offers a cloud-based data storage and analytics service, generally termed "data-as-a-service".[4][5] It allows corporate users to store and analyze data using cloud-based hardware and software. The Snowflake service's main features are separation of storage and compute, on-the-fly scalable compute, data sharing, data cloning, and support for third-party tools.[6] It has run on Amazon Web Services since 2014,[2] on Microsoft Azure since 2018[7] and on the Google Cloud Platform since 2019.[8][9] The company was ranked first on the Forbes Cloud 100 in 2019.[10] The company's initial public offering raised $3.4 billion in September 2020, one of the largest software IPOs in history.[11]

History

[edit]

Snowflake Inc. was founded in July 2012 in San Mateo, California by three data warehousing experts: Benoît Dageville, Thierry Cruanes and Marcin Żukowski. Dageville and Cruanes previously worked as data architects at Oracle Corporation; Żukowski was a co-founder of the Dutch start-up Vectorwise. The company's first CEO was Mike Speiser, a venture capitalist at Sutter Hill Ventures.[12]

In June 2014, the company appointed former Microsoft executive Bob Muglia as CEO. In October 2014, it raised $26 million and came out of stealth mode, being used by 80 organizations.[13] In June 2015, the company raised an additional $45 million and launched its first product, its cloud data warehouse, to the public.[14][15][16] It raised another $100 million in April 2017.[17][18] In January 2018, the company announced a $263 million financing round at a $1.5 billion valuation, making it a unicorn.[19] In October 2018, it raised another $450 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital, raising its valuation to $3.5 billion.[4][20]

In May 2019, Frank Slootman, the retired former CEO of ServiceNow, joined Snowflake as its CEO and Michael Scarpelli, the former CFO of ServiceNow joined the company as CFO.[8] In June 2019, the company launched Snowflake Data Exchange.[21] In September 2019, it was ranked first on LinkedIn's 2019 U.S. list of Top Startups.[22]

On February 7, 2020, the company raised another $479 million. At that time, it had 3,400 active customers.[23] On September 16, 2020, Snowflake became a public company via an initial public offering (IPO) raising $3.4 billion, one of the largest software IPOs and the largest to double on its first day of trading.[11][24][25][26][27]

On May 26, 2021, the company announced that it would become headquarterless,[28] with a principal executive office located in Bozeman, Montana.[29]

On March 2, 2022, the company acquired Streamlit for $800 million. [30] Then on October 17, 2022, the company announced an investment in advanced TV advertising firm OpenAP.[31]

Snowflake announced it would acquire privacy-focused search startup Neeva for $185 million in May 2023.[32][33]

On October 23, 2023, Snowflake acquired a start-up named Ponder to expand its Python capabilities for enterprises.[34]

On February 28, 2024, Snowflake announced that Slootman was retiring and Sridhar Ramaswamy would be replacing him as CEO.[33]

2024 Data Breach

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In 2024, a massive hack of Snowflake customers resulted in data breaches of Ticketmaster,[35] Advance Auto Parts (over 2.3 million records affected),[36] Santander Bank, LendingTree, AT&T (call logs and cell site locations from over 100 million mobile customers),[37] and others.[38] Lists of customer logins were available in hacking forums; those without multi-factor authentication were affected.[39][40] In an investigation by Mandiant it was confirmed that credentials for Snowflake customer accounts were obtained by an info-stealing malware tracked as Frostbite, that affected non-Snowflake owned systems.[41]

Mandiant linked the attack to the UNC5537 group, and believe the breach began on April 14, 2024.[42]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "US SEC: Form 10-K Snowflake, Inc". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 26, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Handy, Alex (October 23, 2014). "Snowflake offers cloud data warehouse as a service, cheaply". SD Times.
  3. ^ Wingfield, Nick (October 21, 2014). "Longtime Microsoft Executive Opens Cloud Database Start-Up". The New York Times. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Dignan, Larry (October 22, 2018). "Snowflake raises $450 million in another VC round, valued at $3.5 billion". ZDNet.
  5. ^ Bass, Dina (October 21, 2014). "Snowflake Takes Aim at Amazon, Hadoop With New Data Service". Bloomberg News.
  6. ^ Reckers, Ed (January 14, 2022). "What is the Snowflake Data Platform?". SnapLogic. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  7. ^ Brust, Andrew (July 12, 2018). "Snowflake's cloud data warehouse comes to Microsoft Azure". ZDNet.
  8. ^ a b Taulli, Tom (June 5, 2019). "Snowflake: The AI Force Multiplier". Forbes.
  9. ^ Ichhpurani, Kevin (June 4, 2019). "Announcing Snowflake on Google Cloud Platform". Google Cloud Platform.
  10. ^ Brier, Elisabeth; Cai, Kenrick; Jeans, David; Melton, Monica (September 16, 2020). Konrad, Alex (ed.). "The Cloud 100 2019". Forbes.
  11. ^ a b La Monica, Paul R. (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake Shares More than Double. It's the Biggest Software IPO Ever". CNN. New York. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Vanian, Jonathan (October 21, 2014). "With $26M, Snowflake Computing is hoping its take on data warehousing will hit the mainstream". Gigaom.
  14. ^ Vanian, Jonathan (June 23, 2015). "This big data startup is as unique as a snowflake". Fortune.
  15. ^ Hesseldahl, Arik (June 23, 2015). "Big Data Startup Snowflake Raises $45 Million, Launches First Product". Vox Media.
  16. ^ Brust, Andrew (June 26, 2015). "Cloud data warehouse race heats up". ZDNet.
  17. ^ Dignan, Larry (April 5, 2017). "Snowflake Computing raises $100 million to expand cloud data warehouse footprint". ZDNet.
  18. ^ Magistretti, Bérénice; Novet, Jordan (April 5, 2017). "Cloud data warehouse startup Snowflake raises $100 million led by Iconiq". VentureBeat.
  19. ^ Miller, Ron (January 25, 2018). "Snowflake lands massive $263 million investment on unicorn valuation". TechCrunch.
  20. ^ Krazit, Tom (October 11, 2018). "With huge new $450M funding round, Snowflake Computing has now raised almost $1 billion". GeekWire.
  21. ^ "Snowflake Announces Data Exchange to Break Down Data Barriers" (Press release). PR Newswire. Snowflake Inc. June 4, 2019.
  22. ^ Hempel, Jessi (September 4, 2019). "LinkedIn Top Startups 2019: The 50 hottest U.S. companies to work for now". LinkedIn.
  23. ^ Miller, Ron (February 9, 2020). "After $479M round on $12.4B valuation, Snowflake CEO says IPO is next step". TechCrunch.
  24. ^ Driebusch, Corrie (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake's Stock Price Soars in IPO". The Wall Street Journal.
  25. ^ Bary, Emily (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake IPO surge makes it the priciest tech stock by a mile". MarketWatch.
  26. ^ Zara, Christopher (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake, JFrog IPO: Software stocks soar in market debut". Fast Company.
  27. ^ Pressman, Aaron (September 16, 2020). "Snowflake CEO: Doubling of stock price after IPO reflects 'frothy' market". Fortune.
  28. ^ Levy, Ari (May 26, 2021). "Snowflake relocates executive office from California to Bozeman, Montana, as company goes distributed". CNBC. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  29. ^ "Snowflake Reports Financial Results for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2022" (Press release). Snowflake Inc. May 26, 2021.
  30. ^ Miller, Ron (March 2, 2022). "Snowflake acquires Streamlit for $800M to help customers build data-based apps". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  31. ^ Sharma, Shubham (October 17, 2022). "Snowflake acquires stake in OpenAP to set up data clean room for advertisers". VentureBeat. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  32. ^ Palmer, Annie (May 24, 2023). "Snowflake shares plunge 12% on guidance miss, acquisition of search startup Neeva". CNBC.
  33. ^ a b Vanian, Jonathan (February 28, 2024). "Snowflake says Frank Slootman is retiring as CEO; stock plunges 20%". CNBC. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  34. ^ "Snowflake to acquire Ponder, expanding its Python capabilities for enterprises". VentureBeat. October 23, 2023. Retrieved October 24, 2023.
  35. ^ Whittaker, Zack (May 31, 2024). "Live Nation confirms Ticketmaster was hacked, says personal information stolen in data breach". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 2, 2024.
  36. ^ Jonathan Grieg (July 11, 2024). "Advance Auto Parts says more than 2 million impacted by data breach". therecord.media. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  37. ^ Bill Toulas (July 12, 2024). "Massive AT&T data breach exposes call logs of 109 million customers". BleepingComputer. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  38. ^ Nast, Condé (June 6, 2024). "The Snowflake Attack May Be Turning Into One of the Largest Data Breaches Ever". WIRED. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  39. ^ Whittaker, Zach (June 5, 2024). "Hundreds of Snowflake customer passwords found online are linked to info-stealing malware". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 2, 2024.
  40. ^ Sergiu Gatlan (June 5, 2024). "Advance Auto Parts stolen data for sale after Snowflake attack". BleepingComputer. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  41. ^ "Mandiant: 'Exposed credentials' led to Snowflake attacks | TechTarget". Security. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
  42. ^ "UNC5537 Targets Snowflake Customer Instances for Data Theft and Extortion". June 10, 2024. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
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