What is Modal?
Modal provides serverless compute for AI, data, and Python workloads.
- Category
- Serverless AI infrastructure
- Headquarters
- New York, NY
- Founded
- 2021
- Employees
- Not publicly disclosed
- Total funding
- Reported ~$23M+
- Valuation
- Not publicly disclosed
What is Modal?
Modal is a serverless ai infrastructure headquartered in New York, NY. Modal provides serverless compute for AI, data, and Python workloads.
Modal operates in serverless ai infrastructure and is best understood by its product surface: Serverless Python, GPU jobs, Model inference, Batch jobs, Scheduled functions. Customers include AI startups, data teams, and developers that need elastic GPU/CPU jobs without managing clusters. Revenue is not disclosed; usage is tied to serverless compute for AI and data workloads.
The company was founded in 2021, is headquartered in New York, NY, and has not publicly disclosed employees according to public reporting or company-visible signals. Its market position is shaped by the acceleration of AI infrastructure and application spend, but most private-company financials remain reported estimates rather than audited disclosures.
For buyers and sellers, Modal is a useful account because the company sits close to production AI budgets. The relevant buying centers are usually engineering, research, infrastructure, product, security, and enterprise operations rather than a single generic AI owner.
What does Modal offer?
Modal's public product surface includes Serverless Python, GPU jobs, Model inference, Batch jobs and related enterprise capabilities.
- Serverless Python· Product / capability
- GPU jobs· Product / capability
- Model inference· Product / capability
- Batch jobs· Product / capability
- Scheduled functions· Product / capability
- Volumes· Product / capability
How does Modal make money?
Modal monetizes through a mix of self-service usage, subscriptions, infrastructure capacity, licensing, and enterprise contracts depending on the product line.
Modal prices by resource usage across CPU, GPU, memory, storage, and function runtime, with team and enterprise arrangements.
Growth is driven by production AI usage: more prompts, model calls, GPU hours, private deployments, seats, storage, or managed workflows depending on the product. Where exact pricing is not published, the profile treats enterprise terms as contract-priced rather than inventing seat prices.
The buyer motion is therefore both developer-led and enterprise-led. Individual builders may start with a free tier, open-source project, or usage-based API, while larger accounts typically involve procurement, security review, data-governance review, and committed capacity or platform agreements.
Who leads Modal?
Modal's publicly visible leadership includes Erik Bernhardsson, Akshat Bubna.
- Erik BernhardssonCo-founder & CEOPublic role as of June 2026Former Spotify engineering leader and infrastructure builder.
- Akshat BubnaCo-founderPublic role as of June 2026Co-founder and technical leader.
How do you contact Modal's leadership?
No verified public executive email pattern was confirmed for Modal; use the company's official contact, sales, support, or press paths rather than guessed personal emails.
No verified public executive email format; use official contact channels.How much funding has Modal raised?
Modal has reported ~$23m+, with valuation/status currently described as Not publicly disclosed.
Modal's disclosed funding history is: 2022: Seed — Early financing for serverless infrastructure. 2023: Series A — Reported $16M Series A led by Redpoint.
Because several AI companies use strategic partnerships, cloud credits, debt, project finance, or reported-but-not-yet-filed private rounds, this profile separates disclosed funding from directional reports. The valuation field is reported as Not publicly disclosed; it should be rechecked before financial decisions.
The seller signal is budget maturity. Companies with late-stage or infrastructure-scale financing usually have formal procurement and security processes, while earlier labs and open-source companies may centralize decisions with founders and technical platform leaders.
How did Modal get here?
Modal's timeline runs from its 2021 founding to its current serverless ai infrastructure position.
- 2021FoundedModal starts as a Python-native cloud platform.
- 2022Early productThe company launches serverless functions for data/ML.
- 2023Series AModal raises to expand infrastructure and product.
- 2024GPU workloadsAI inference and training jobs become a major use case.
- 2025Platform maturityModal adds volumes, queues, scheduling, and deployment features.
- 2026Serverless AI infraThe company competes with model-serving and cloud GPU platforms.
Who are Modal's competitors?
Modal competes with Replicate, Baseten, Runpod, AWS Lambda, CoreWeave depending on the buyer's use case.
- ReplicateReplicate overlaps with Modal for buyers evaluating serverless ai infrastructure alternatives, but differs by product depth, deployment model, geography, or ecosystem.
- BasetenBaseten overlaps with Modal for buyers evaluating serverless ai infrastructure alternatives, but differs by product depth, deployment model, geography, or ecosystem.
- RunpodRunpod overlaps with Modal for buyers evaluating serverless ai infrastructure alternatives, but differs by product depth, deployment model, geography, or ecosystem.
- AWS LambdaAWS Lambda overlaps with Modal for buyers evaluating serverless ai infrastructure alternatives, but differs by product depth, deployment model, geography, or ecosystem.
- CoreWeaveCoreWeave overlaps with Modal for buyers evaluating serverless ai infrastructure alternatives, but differs by product depth, deployment model, geography, or ecosystem.
Modal — frequently asked questions
