Startups > Cloudinary

Cloudinary

Cloudinary helps developers automate media management and delivery at scale.

Series A $100M total Founded 2011 Santa Clara, California

Cloudinary is a cloud-based media management platform that automates the storage, transformation, optimization, and delivery of images and videos at scale. It provides developers with APIs, SDKs, and widgets to integrate media workflows into applications with minimal code. The platform serves 5,500 customers managing nearly 30 billion assets, from e-commerce giants like Walmart and DoorDash to fashion brands like Reformation. Cloudinary combines digital asset management with real-time media transformation capabilities, positioning itself as a hybrid solution that commands premium pricing versus point solutions like Imgix or ImageKit.

Problem solved

Developers waste significant time on manual image resizing, optimization, and delivery—Cloudinary automates this with cloud-based APIs that transform complex media work into single-line code integrations.

Target customer

Mid-market to enterprise companies with high-volume image and video workflows, including e-commerce platforms, media publishers, fashion brands, and applications requiring fast media delivery and asset organization.

Website LinkedIn Crunchbase

Founders

Itai Lahan

CEO & Co-Founder

Israeli entrepreneur who previously founded Ndivi (web developer marketplace) and served as VP Product at Collactive; met co-founders in IDF intelligence unit.

Tal Lev-Ami

CTO & Co-Founder

System architect with experience as CTO at Ndivi and Newsodrome, and technical roles at Blue Security and Trivnet Ltd.

Nadav Soferman

CPO & Co-Founder

Chief Product Officer and co-founder bringing product strategy expertise to the founding team.

Funding history

Series A Unknown 2015 Led by Bessemer Venture Partners · Unknown

Series D $60M 2021 Led by Blackstone Growth · Unknown

Secondary Investment $100M+ 2022 Led by Blackstone · Unknown

Strategic Investment Unknown 2020 Led by Salesforce Ventures · Unknown

Total raised: $100M

Industries

Cloud Data Services Cloud Computing Apps Digital Marketing Digital Media Information Technology Mobile Photography Web Development SaaS

Pricing

Tiered usage-based model: Free plan (unlimited duration, generous limits), Plus ($89/month with 225 monthly credits), Advanced ($224/month with 600 monthly credits), Enterprise (custom pricing with dedicated support). Costs scale with bandwidth, storage, transformations, and advanced features.

Notable customers

Apartment Therapy, Bleacher Report, Condé Nast, DoorDash, Forbes, HelloFresh, Hinge, Lululemon Athletica, Neiman Marcus, NTT Resonant, Procter & Gamble, Reformation, StubHub, trivago, Under Armour, Walmart Labs

Integrations

Salesforce, developer SDKs and APIs for various frameworks and languages

Website

cloudinary.com/

Competitors

ImageKit.io

Focused purely on image optimization at lower price points but lacks Cloudinary's asset management interface and broader media transformation capabilities.

Imgix

Specializes in image optimization and delivery but does not include digital asset management features that Cloudinary provides.

Bynder

Traditional DAM platform with deeper organizational features but limited media transformation and optimization capabilities compared to Cloudinary.

NPAW

Unknown specific differentiation.

Plivo

Unknown specific differentiation.

Why this matters: Cloudinary became a category leader by solving a real developer pain point—manual media optimization—with an elegant API-first approach. Its 2024 recognition as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Visionary for DAM and 3M developer milestone demonstrate sustained momentum and adoption despite competition from specialized tools.

Best for: E-commerce platforms, media publishers, and high-traffic web applications that need to deliver optimized visual content at scale without engineering overhead.

Use cases

E-commerce Image Optimization

Fashion and retail companies like Reformation use Cloudinary to automatically optimize product images for different devices and formats, reducing payload by 60% and page load times by 31% while improving SEO scores. This eliminates the need for manual image resizing and versioning.

Large-Scale Digital Asset Management

Enterprise retailers like Neiman Marcus manage 18+ million assets in Cloudinary, organizing product imagery and video content across websites and mobile apps. The platform enables teams to centrally manage, transform, and deliver media without duplicating files across systems.

Mobile App Media Delivery

Apps like Hinge and DoorDash use Cloudinary to serve responsive images and videos to millions of users on varied network conditions and devices. Automatic compression and format selection optimize load times and reduce data consumption for mobile users.

Alternatives

ImageKit.io Choose ImageKit for pure image optimization at lower cost if DAM features and video handling aren't critical requirements.

Imgix Choose Imgix for focused real-time image transformation and delivery without needing comprehensive asset management or video support.

Bynder Choose Bynder for enterprise-grade digital asset organization and governance if transformation capabilities are secondary to content management.

FAQ

What does Cloudinary do? +

Cloudinary is a cloud-based platform that automates the storage, transformation, optimization, and delivery of images and videos. It provides APIs and SDKs allowing developers to integrate media management into applications with minimal code, handling everything from resizing and format conversion to real-time delivery optimization.

How much does Cloudinary cost? +

Cloudinary offers a free plan with generous limits, Plus at $89/month (225 credits), Advanced at $224/month (600 credits), and custom Enterprise plans. Pricing scales based on bandwidth, storage, transformations, and advanced features used.

What are alternatives to Cloudinary? +

ImageKit.io and Imgix offer pure image optimization at lower price points. Bynder provides enterprise digital asset management with less transformation capability. Other competitors include Plivo and NPAW, though Cloudinary's hybrid approach (DAM + transformation) is unique in its breadth.

Who uses Cloudinary? +

Target customers are mid-market to enterprise companies with high-volume image and video workflows. Notable customers include Walmart Labs, DoorDash, Condé Nast, Reformation, Neiman Marcus, Under Armour, and trivago—primarily e-commerce, media, and technology companies.

How does Cloudinary compare to ImageKit? +

Cloudinary offers a hybrid platform combining digital asset management with real-time media transformation, supporting both images and videos at scale. ImageKit focuses solely on image optimization and delivery at lower price points, making it better for teams that don't need centralized asset organization.