Ex-Datadog President's AI Startup Standard Template Labs Raises $49M to Transform IT Automation

Ex-Datadog Leader's AI Startup Nabs First $49 Million Funding

Standard Template Labs, founded by former Datadog Inc. President Amit Agarwal, has raised $49 million in its debut financing to try to remake how information technology services operate within big businesses. The deal, which is large for a seed round, is the latest in a wave of financings for startups building AI-powered tools for services industries. The financing values the startup at about $300 million, including the investment, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The capital will be used to help Standard Template Labs, or STLabs, build software that can automate IT management, a space that includes tasks like ticket resolution and application authorization. The company has been in stealth mode until now. Unlike some artificial intelligence startups hoping to disrupt traditional industries by buying up Main Street businesses, STLabs will try to convince large companies to switch to their tools. "There's a category of companies that exist in this space that provide services for small businesses, like your dentist's office," Agarwal said. "I'm focused on companies that actually have large IT teams that manage all of this stuff in-house." The company's new funding round was co-led by Iconiq, where Agarwal served as a full-time general partner for a few months before starting the business, and CRV, an early-stage venture firm. Both investors were also early backers of Datadog. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg may send me offers and promotions. Plus Signed UpPlus Sign UpPlus Sign Up By submitting my information, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. The idea for STLabs was hatched at Iconiq in the firm's first-ever incubation, said Matt Jacobson, a partner at Iconiq. That means its investors helped put together the initial team and launch the company, assisting with office space, customer introductions and hiring, Jacobson said. With the deal, Iconiq is joining venture firms like Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and Thrive Capital in not just backing startups, but creating new ones in promising sectors. The startup is a follow-up act for Agarwal, who spent about 13 years as an executive at Datadog, a cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform with a $44.8 billion market value. STLabs will be going after companies like ServiceNow Inc., which has a market capitalization of more than $100 billion, said CRV investor Murat Bicer. Modern IT systems have gotten "a thousand times more complicated because each piece of the puzzle is now changing," Bicer said, thanks in large part to the introduction of AI into software. The investor said that STLabs will use reasoning and context awareness to be able to navigate the increasingly complex AI back ends of enterprises, with the goal of turning IT into a relatively smooth and automated process. The company has not yet started generating revenue and is still figuring out its pricing strategy, but it's currently piloting an initial software infrastructure product with potential customers, Agarwal said. The primary challenge may be getting companies to try it out in the first place. Large enterprises "have high switching costs when they're running large companies with thousands and tens of thousands of employees -- you can't just turn things off on a dime," the CEO said. "Hopefully we can make it irrational for them to continue using the other systems."

IT automation startup Standard Template Labs raises $49M - SiliconANGLE

Standard Template Labs Inc., a startup using artificial intelligence to help companies manage their technology infrastructure, today announced that it has raised $49 million in funding. The seed investment was jointly led by Iconiq and CRV. According to Bloomberg, the former fund incubated Standard Template Labs. Iconiq reportedly helped recruit the company's founding team, provided office space and connected it with potential customers. Standard Template Labs, or STLabs, is led by former Iconiq general partner Aditya Agarwal. The executive earlier spent more than a decade at Dropbox Inc., where he most recently held the title of Chief Technology Officer. Both Iconiq and CRV invested in the cloud storage provider before its stock listing. "The best IT professionals today spend most of their time navigating systems, chasing approvals, and re-gathering context that should already be at their fingertips," Agarwal said. "Adding a chatbot to a decades-old platform doesn't make it intelligent -- it just gives people a faster way to file the same tickets." STLabs sells a so-called ITSM, or information technology service management, platform. A company's administrators can use it to process technical support requests from employees. Additionally, the software eases certain related tasks such as installing cybersecurity patches. ITSM platforms include a database called a CMDB that stores information about the technology assets in a corporate network. That information is used to power automation workflows. For example, a chatbot could use the CMDB to find the application referenced in an employee's password change request. When one of the systems listed in a CMDB changes, administrators have to manually update the relevant record. Regularly refreshing every record is not always practical in a large enterprise with thousands of IT assets. As a result, the information in a CMBD can go out of date, which limits its usefulness. STLabs ships its platform with a module called Axiom that it positions as an alternative to traditional CMDBs. The module uses AI to collect information about a company's IT systems. It can detect when a system changes and automatically update the relevant record, which helps administrators avoid stale data. Axiom collects information about a company's systems via integrations with more than 100 third-party applications. According to STLabs, the module automatically adapts when an application programming interface through it gathers data changes. That avoids potential technical issues. STLabs' platform uses Axiom to automatically resolve common IT support tickets. If an employee needs help setting up a printer, the software can retrieve a self-service installation guide. It's also capable of completing more advanced tasks such as resetting passwords and granting an administrator access to a database. STLabs says that its platform can resolve 80% of IT tickets. It routes the remaining requests to a company's administrators along with relevant technical data. For example, the platform can point out the root cause of a technical issue and generate a remediation plan. IT teams can also use the platform for other tasks. If a production application has to be restarted for an update, an administrator could ask STLabs to find ways of minimizing downtime. The built-in AI also points out IT assets that don't adhere to a company's cybersecurity requirements.