Snowflake Inc. Explained

Type:Public
Hq Location:Bozeman, Montana, U.S.
Services:Cloud data platform
Revenue: (2025)
Operating Income: (2025)
Net Income: (2025)
Assets: (2025)
Equity: (2025)
Num Employees:7,834 (2025)
Footnotes:Financials .[1]

Snowflake Inc. is an American cloud-based data platform company founded in San Mateo, California, and headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. It operates a platform that supports data analysis and simultaneous access to data sets with minimal latency.[1] It operates on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

History

Snowflake Inc. was founded in July 2012 in San Mateo, California, by Benoît Dageville, Thierry Cruanes, and Marcin Żukowski. Dageville and Cruanes previously worked as data architects at Oracle Corporation; Żukowski was a co-founder of Vectorwise. Mike Speiser, a venture capitalist at Sutter Hill Ventures, which provided early funding to the company, served as its first CEO.[2]

In June 2014, Bob Muglia, formerly of Microsoft, was named CEO. In October 2014, Snowflake came out of stealth mode; at that time it was used by 80 organizations.[3]

Snowflake has run on Amazon Web Services since 2014,[4] [5] on Microsoft Azure since 2018,[6] and on the Google Cloud Platform since 2019.[7]

In June 2015, Snowflake launched its first product, its cloud data warehouse.

In May 2019, Frank Slootman, formerly CEO of ServiceNow, joined Snowflake as its CEO.[8]

In June 2019, the company launched Snowflake Data Exchange.[9]

In December 2020, the company added Knoema as a data provider in the Snowflake Data Marketplace.[10]

In May 2021, the company became a distributed company, with a principal executive office in Bozeman, Montana.[11]

In October 2022, the company acquired a 5% stake in advanced TV advertising firm OpenAP.[12]

In May 2023, Snowflake agreed to acquire privacy-focused search startup, Neeva, for $185 million.[13]

On February 28, 2024, Frank Slootman retired as CEO and was replaced by Neeva's cofounder Sridhar Ramaswamy.[14]

In June 2025, Snowflake announced its acquisition of Crunchy Data, a provider of cloud-based PostgreSQL services and distributor of certified Postgres, for approximately $250 million.[15] [16] [17]

In January 2026, Snowflake announced an agreement to acquire Observe, an AI-powered observability company.[18]

Products

Snowflake develops and sells a cloud-based data platform known as the Data Cloud. The platform allows organizations to unify data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, and data sharing into a single service. Snowflake runs on public cloud infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and separates compute from storage for scalable, on-demand analytics.[19]

In 2020, Snowflake introduced Snowpark, a developer framework that enables writing data pipelines and business logic using Java, Scala, and Python directly within Snowflake.[20]

In 2021, Snowflake launched Unistore, a hybrid workload that combines transactional and analytical operations within the same platform, enabling real-time applications to be built directly on Snowflake.[21]

In 2023, the company introduced the Native App Framework, which allows developers to build, distribute, and monetize applications that run securely within a customer’s Snowflake account.[22]

Snowflake also provides services including Snowpipe for continuous data ingestion and the Snowflake Marketplace, where organizations can access and share live, query-ready datasets.[23]

In 2024, Snowflake launched Cortex, a set of generative AI services embedded into the platform. Cortex includes access to large language models, vector search, and model deployment capabilities, allowing users to build AI-powered applications using SQL or Python.[24] Recently, they have introduced Snowflake Intelligence.

Snowflake supports workloads such as machine learning, streaming analytics, business intelligence, and unstructured data processing, with integrations for tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Sigma Computing.[25]

2024 Data Breach

In 2024, customers of Snowflake were targeted as part of a mass customer data theft and extortion campaign.[26] [27] [28] [29] Data breaches affected Ticketmaster,[30] Advance Auto Parts,[31] Santander Bank, Neiman Marcus, LendingTree, AT&T, Pure Storage, and Bausch Health.[32] In May 2024, Snowflake collaborated with Mandiant in an investigation which found no evidence of Snowflake’s environment being breached but rather customer credentials being compromised.[33] [34]

Two men were involved in the hacking conspiracy. Connor Riley Moucka aka Waifu, 25, of Kitchener, Ontario, and John Erin Binns aka IRDev. Moucka was arrested on October 30, 2024; a Washington state court has issued an indictment on charges of conspiracy, computer fraud and abuse, extortion, and aggravated identity theft.[35] [36] [37]

Funding

In 2012, Snowflake raised $5 million in a Series A round. In October 2014, it raised $26 million.

In June 2015, the company raised $45 million.[38] [39] [40] It raised $100 million in April 2017.[41] [42]

In January 2018, the company raised $263 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, making it a unicorn.[43] In October of that same year, the company raised $450 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital, at a $3.5 billion valuation.[44] [45]

On February 7, 2020, the company raised $479 million. The company went public in September via an initial public offering, raising $3.4 billion in one of the largest software IPOs and the largest to double on its first day of trading.[46] [47] [48] [49] [50]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: US SEC: Form 10-K Snowflake, Inc. . . March 21, 2025.
  2. News: Anders . George . You're never too old to excel: How Snowflake thrives with 'dinosaur' cofounders and a 60-year-old CEO. . . September 4, 2019.
  3. News: Bass . Dina . Snowflake Takes Aim at Amazon, Hadoop With New Data Service . . October 21, 2014 . subscription.
  4. News: Snowflake offers cloud data warehouse as a service, cheaply . Alex . Handy . . October 23, 2014.
  5. News: Longtime Microsoft Executive Opens Cloud Database Start-Up . Nick . Wingfield . . October 21, 2014 . limited.
  6. News: Brust . Andrew . Snowflake's cloud data warehouse comes to Microsoft Azure . . July 12, 2018.
  7. Announcing Snowflake on Google Cloud Platform . Ichhpurani . Kevin . . June 4, 2019.
  8. News: Snowflake: The AI Force Multiplier . Taulli . Tom . . June 5, 2019.
  9. Snowflake Announces Data Exchange to Break Down Data Barriers . . June 4, 2019.
  10. News: Knoema announces acquisition by Eldridge and partnership with Snowflake . Manasa . Gogineni . . December 21, 2020.
  11. News: Snowflake relocates executive office from California to Bozeman, Montana, as company goes distributed . Levy . Ari . . May 26, 2021.
  12. News: Snowflake acquires stake in OpenAP to set up data clean room for advertisers . Sharma . Shubham . . October 17, 2022.
  13. News: Snowflake shares plunge 12% on guidance miss, acquisition of search startup Neeva . Palmer . Annie . . May 24, 2023.
  14. News: Vanian . Jonathan . Snowflake says Frank Slootman is retiring as CEO; stock plunges 20% . . February 28, 2024.
  15. News: 2025-06-02 . Exclusive Snowflake to Buy Crunchy Data for $250 Million . 2025-06-04 . Wall Street Journal . en-US . 0099-9660.
  16. Web site: 2025-06-03 . Snowflake Undercuts Databricks with Crunchy Data Acquisition . 2025-06-04 . AIM Research Artificial Intelligence Market Insights . en-US.
  17. Web site: Delivering the Most Enterprise-Ready Postgres, Built for Snowflake . 2025-06-04 . www.snowflake.com . en.
  18. Web site: Pattanaik . Anwesha . 2026-01-09 . Snowflake to acquire AI observability firm Observe . 2026-01-09 . Tech Monitor . en-US.
  19. Web site: How Snowflake Works . Snowflake . May 19, 2025.
  20. Web site: Announcing Snowpark: Bringing Data Programmability to the Data Cloud . Snowflake . June 15, 2021 . May 19, 2025.
  21. News: Snowflake introduces Unistore to combine OLTP and OLAP . ZDNet . June 15, 2021 . May 19, 2025.
  22. Web site: Build and Monetize Data Apps with the Snowflake Native App Framework . Snowflake . June 27, 2023 . May 19, 2025.
  23. Web site: Data Sharing and Marketplace . Snowflake Docs . May 19, 2025.
  24. Web site: Introducing Snowflake Cortex . Snowflake . November 1, 2023 . May 19, 2025.
  25. Web site: Snowflake Ecosystem . Snowflake . May 19, 2025.
  26. The Snowflake Attack May Be Turning Into One of the Largest Data Breaches Ever . . June 6, 2024.
  27. News: Hundreds of Snowflake customer passwords found online are linked to info-stealing malware . Zach . Whittaker . . June 5, 2024.
  28. News: Advance Auto Parts stolen data for sale after Snowflake attack . Sergiu . Gatlan . . June 5, 2024.
  29. News: Mandiant: 'Exposed credentials' led to Snowflake attacks . Alexander . Culafi . . June 10, 2024.
  30. News: Live Nation confirms Ticketmaster was hacked, says personal information stolen in data breach . Whittaker . Zack . . May 31, 2024.
  31. News: Advance Auto Parts says more than 2 million impacted by data breach . Jonathan . Grieg . . July 11, 2024.
  32. News: Cox . Joseph . Hacker Breaches Pharma Giant Bausch Health, Wants to Extort DEA . . July 30, 2024.
  33. Web site: Alspach . Kyle . Snowflake Customers Hit With ‘Significant’ Data Theft In Attacks: Mandiant . http://web.archive.org/web/20241111154602/https://www.crn.com/news/security/2024/snowflake-customers-hit-with-significant-data-theft-in-attacks-mandiant . 2024-11-11 . 2025-12-04 . www.crn.com.
  34. Web site: Alleged Snowflake hacker consents to extradition from Canada after US charges . 2025-12-04 . therecord.media . en.
  35. Web site: Accused Kitchener hacker unmasked after threatening woman online . Terry . Pender . November 29, 2024 . The Record.
  36. Web site: US indicts Snowflake hackers who extorted $2.5 million from 3 victims . BleepingComputer.
  37. Web site: Indictment . DocumentCloud.
  38. News: Vanian . Jonathan . This big data startup is as unique as a snowflake . . June 23, 2015 . subscription.
  39. News: Hesseldahl . Arik . Big Data Startup Snowflake Raises $45 Million, Launches First Product . . June 23, 2015.
  40. News: Brust . Andrew . Cloud data warehouse race heats up . . June 26, 2015.
  41. News: Dignan . Larry . Snowflake Computing raises $100 million to expand cloud data warehouse footprint . . April 5, 2017.
  42. News: Cloud data warehouse startup Snowflake raises $100 million led by Iconiq . . Bérénice . Magistretti . Jordan . Novet . April 5, 2017.
  43. News: Snowflake lands massive $263 million investment on unicorn valuation . Miller . Ron . . January 25, 2018.
  44. News: Dignan . Larry . Snowflake raises $450 million in another VC round, valued at $3.5 billion . . October 22, 2018.
  45. News: With huge new $450M funding round, Snowflake Computing has now raised almost $1 billion . Krazit . Tom . . October 11, 2018.
  46. News: Snowflake's Stock Price Soars in IPO . Corrie . Driebusch . . September 16, 2020 . subscription.
  47. News: Bary . Emily . September 16, 2020 . Snowflake IPO surge makes it the priciest tech stock by a mile . limited . MarketWatch.
  48. News: Zara . Christopher . September 16, 2020 . Snowflake, JFrog IPO: Software stocks soar in market debut . Fast Company.
  49. News: Pressman . Aaron . September 16, 2020 . Snowflake CEO: Doubling of stock price after IPO reflects 'frothy' market . Fortune.
  50. News: La Monica . Paul R. . September 16, 2020 . Snowflake Shares More than Double. It's the Biggest Software IPO Ever . CNN.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Snowflake Inc.".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2026, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.