Grafana

Logging & Monitoring

Grafana Labs, the company behind the open source Grafana observability platform, was founded in 2014 by Raj Dutt, Anthony Woods, and Torkel Ödegaard.

Reviewed by 7wData
Share Email

On this page

Profile

Grafana provides an open-source platform for monitoring, visualizing, and analyzing time-series data from infrastructure, applications, and business systems.

Grafana Labs, the company behind the open source Grafana observability platform, was founded in 2014 by Raj Dutt, Anthony Woods, and Torkel Ödegaard. The company has scaled rapidly, surpassing $400 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) as of September 2025 and serving over 7,000 organizations, including 70% of the Fortune 50. In September 2025, Grafana Labs completed a secondary transaction led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, with participation from Sapphire Ventures and Tiger Global, alongside existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, GIC, Coatue, Sequoia Capital, CapitalG, and Lead Edge Capital.

The company’s valuation reached $6 billion in 2024, according to Sacra. Grafana Labs generates revenue through enterprise subscriptions and managed cloud services (Grafana Cloud), with gross margins of 80-90% and a monetization rate of roughly 1% of its 20 million total users, indicating significant expansion potential. The company has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms (positioned furthest for Completeness of Vision) and ranked #13 on the Forbes Cloud 100 in 2025.

In early 2026, Grafana Labs reported continued growth, adding 100+ employees and establishing a new subsidiary in Japan. The company’s open-source roots extend to major contributions to Prometheus and OpenTelemetry, and it ranks among the top 50 global organizations by GitHub stars. Grafana Labs now competes directly with Datadog, New Relic, and Splunk in the observability market, which Sacra estimates at $50 billion+.

Track Grafana and 240+ vendors.

48k+ subscribers read the daily AI & data note. One email, both newsletters. Unsubscribe anytime.

Who buys this

  • Large enterprises with complex, distributed IT infrastructure (e.g., financial services, tech, telecom)
  • AI-native startups and companies building and operating AI/ML systems at scale
  • DevOps and site reliability engineering (SRE) teams seeking unified observability across metrics, logs, and traces
  • Organizations adopting open-source and open-standards-based observability to avoid vendor lock-in
  • Managed service providers and cloud-native companies using Kubernetes and microservices architectures

Publicly disclosed clients

  • Anthropic
  • NVIDIA
  • Salesforce
  • Microsoft
  • Bloomberg
  • J.P. Morgan Chase

Strengths and what to watch

Strengths

  • Strong open-source community and brand: Grafana is the most popular open-source observability dashboard, with 74,200+ GitHub stars and a large plugin ecosystem supporting 100+ data sources.
  • High-growth, capital-efficient business model: ARR grew 69% year-over-year to $270M in 2024, with 80-90% gross margins and a secondary transaction at a $6B valuation without a primary fundraise.
  • Deep enterprise adoption and AI tailwind: 70% of the Fortune 50 are customers, and the company is positioned as critical infrastructure for AI-native companies like Anthropic and NVIDIA.

Watch for

  • Monetization gap: With 20 million users but only 7,000 paying customers, the company must convert free/open-source users without alienating the community that drives its growth.
  • Competitive pressure from incumbents: Datadog, New Relic, and Splunk have larger sales forces and deeper enterprise relationships; Grafana Labs must continue to differentiate on openness and cost.
  • Secondary transaction signals: The September 2025 secondary sale (not a primary raise) may indicate that early investors are seeking liquidity, and the company has not raised new primary capital since 2022, which could constrain growth investments.

Recent moves

Key Information

Industry
Logging & Monitoring
Founded
2014

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Grafana and what does it do?

Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring, visualizing, and analyzing time-series data from infrastructure, applications, and business systems. It helps DevOps and SRE teams unify observability across metrics, logs, and traces in customizable dashboards.

Who are Grafana's main competitors?

Grafana Labs competes directly with Datadog, New Relic, and Splunk in the observability market, which Sacra estimates at over $50 billion. Grafana differentiates through its open-source roots, strong community, and support for open standards like Prometheus and OpenTelemetry.

How does Grafana make money?

Grafana Labs generates revenue through enterprise subscriptions and managed cloud services called Grafana Cloud. With gross margins of 80-90% and over $400 million in annual recurring revenue as of September 2025, the company monetizes roughly 1% of its 20 million total users.

Which companies use Grafana?

Grafana serves over 7,000 organizations, including 70% of the Fortune 50. Notable clients include Anthropic, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Microsoft, Bloomberg, and J.P. Morgan Chase. It is widely adopted by large enterprises with complex IT infrastructure and AI-native startups.

Is Grafana open source?

Yes, Grafana is the most popular open-source observability dashboard, with over 74,200 GitHub stars and a large plugin ecosystem supporting more than 100 data sources. Grafana Labs, the company behind it, also contributes significantly to Prometheus and OpenTelemetry.

What is Grafana Labs' recent growth and valuation?

Grafana Labs surpassed $400 million in annual recurring revenue in September 2025 and reached a $6 billion valuation in 2024. The company completed a secondary transaction led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and was named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms.

Sources

  1. github.com — GitHub repository with 74.2k stars, 14k forks, and 69,724 commits as of June 2026.
  2. grafana.com — Announcement of $400M ARR, 7,000+ customers, secondary transaction led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and named clients (Anthropic, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Microsoft).
  3. grafana.com — FY2026 update: $400M+ ARR, 7,000+ customers, 70% of Fortune 50, 100+ new employees, Japan subsidiary, Gartner Leader, Forbes Cloud 100 #13.
  4. sacra.com — Sacra data: $270M ARR in 2024 (69% YoY growth), $6B valuation, $663.73M total funding, 80-90% gross margins, 20M users, 5,000+ paying customers.