Startups > Teleport

Teleport

Teleport replaces VPNs with certificate-based identity access for infrastructure.

Series C $169M total Founded 2015 Oakland, California 189 employees

Teleport is an open-source identity and access management platform that replaces traditional VPNs and secret-based security with a unified, certificate-based access control layer for servers, databases, Kubernetes clusters, cloud applications, and AI infrastructure. It eliminates credential sprawl by issuing short-lived, automatically expiring certificates instead of long-lived SSH keys and passwords. The platform serves infrastructure teams at scale, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, providing zero-trust access enforcement across all computing resources.

Problem solved

Organizations struggle with credential sprawl, insecure long-lived secrets, and complex access management across fragmented infrastructure (servers, databases, Kubernetes, cloud), creating security risks and operational friction.

Target customer

Mid-market to enterprise infrastructure and platform engineering teams managing multiple computing resources; DevOps, security, and SRE teams requiring zero-trust access control and audit compliance.

Website LinkedIn Crunchbase

Founders

Ev Kontsevoy

CEO & Co-Founder

Serial entrepreneur and software engineer; previously CEO of Mailgun (acquired by Rackspace), then Director of Product at Rackspace for 3 years.

Alexander Klizhentas

CTO & Co-Founder

Co-founder and CTO bringing core technical architecture expertise.

Taylor Wakefield

COO & Co-Founder

Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer managing business operations and scaling.

Funding history

Seed $120K August 2015 Led by Y Combinator · Zillionize

Series A $25M November 2019 Led by Kleiner Perkins · S28 Capital

Series B $30M August 2021 Led by S28 Capital · Kleiner Perkins

Series C $110M May 2022 Led by Bessemer Venture Partners · Insight Partners, Kleiner Perkins, S28 Capital

Total raised: $169M

Industries

Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Data Services Identity Management Privacy Software

Pricing

Team tier: $12–$18 per resource/month (annual billing). Enterprise tier: $24–$40+ per resource/month (cloud-hosted) or $50K–$100K+ annually (self-hosted). Volume discounts available at 50+ resources. Full pricing available upon request.

Notable customers

NASDAQ, Elastic, Snowflake, DoorDash, Splunk, TicketMaster, Mulesoft, Samsung, Qwilt, Flywheel, Turo, Exness, Rush Street Interactive, GoTo, Carta

Integrations

SSH, RDP, HTTPS, Kubernetes API, AWS, GCP, Azure cloud consoles, Git repositories, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, databases, Okta, GitHub

Website

goteleport.com/

Competitors

CyberArk

Traditional PAM vendor; Teleport positions as next-generation infrastructure access replacing legacy secret-based models with identity-first approach.

SailPoint

Broad IAM platform; Teleport focuses specifically on infrastructure and computing resource access with certificate-based automation.

BeyondTrust

Legacy PAM player; Teleport offers simpler, more developer-friendly infrastructure access without complex secret management.

Cloaked

Modern alternative; Teleport differentiates through open-source foundation, broader resource support, and AI infrastructure capabilities.

One Identity

Traditional IAM; Teleport specializes in zero-trust access for computing infrastructure rather than broad identity governance.

Why this matters: Teleport is challenging a multi-billion-dollar legacy PAM market by positioning certificate-based identity as the modern replacement for secret management. With $169M in funding, backing from top-tier VCs (Bessemer, Kleiner Perkins), and adoption by major companies (NASDAQ, Elastic, Snowflake), it's demonstrating that next-gen infrastructure access can displace entrenched players while winning in AI and cloud-native security.

Best for: Enterprise and mid-market DevOps, platform, and infrastructure teams replacing VPNs and managing multi-cloud access; security-first organizations adopting zero-trust architecture.

Use cases

Eliminating VPN and SSH Key Management

Engineering teams eliminate the operational burden of managing VPNs, SSH keys, and bastion hosts. Teleport issues short-lived certificates automatically, reducing the surface area for credential theft and simplifying access provisioning. For example, Flywheel reduced engineer onboarding time by 99.9% using Teleport.

Zero-Trust Database Access

Database and platform teams enforce MFA and audit trails on all database connections without managing separate credentials per environment. Short-lived certificates replace long-lived passwords, and per-session MFA ensures only authorized users access sensitive data.

Kubernetes and Cloud Infrastructure Access

SRE and platform teams provide developers secure access to Kubernetes clusters, cloud consoles, and computing environments without exposing admin credentials. Automatic certificate expiration and centralized audit logging satisfy compliance requirements while maintaining developer velocity.

AI and LLM Infrastructure Security

Organizations securing AI infrastructure and agentic AI environments with centralized identity control for ML models and MCP servers, ensuring AI agents operate within defined access boundaries.

Alternatives

HashiCorp Vault General-purpose secrets management and encryption; Teleport is purpose-built for infrastructure access with built-in proxy and audit.

Apache Guacamole Open-source remote access gateway; less mature for enterprise scale, audit compliance, and zero-trust certificate automation.

JumpCloud Identity and device management platform; Teleport is more specialized in infrastructure access and computing resource security.

FAQ

What does Teleport do? +

Teleport is an open-source identity and access management platform that replaces VPNs and secret-based access with certificate-based zero-trust access control. It provides a single gateway for secure access to servers, databases, Kubernetes clusters, cloud applications, and AI infrastructure using short-lived, automatically expiring certificates instead of long-lived credentials.

How much does Teleport cost? +

Team tier pricing starts at $12–$18 per resource per month (annual billing). Enterprise tiers range from $24–$40+ per resource per month for cloud-hosted deployments or $50K–$100K+ annually for self-hosted setups. Volume discounts are available. Contact sales for custom pricing.

What are alternatives to Teleport? +

Key alternatives include HashiCorp Vault (general-purpose secrets management), Apache Guacamole (open-source remote access), JumpCloud (identity and device management), and traditional PAM vendors like CyberArk, SailPoint, and BeyondTrust.

Who uses Teleport? +

Target customers are mid-market to enterprise infrastructure, DevOps, SRE, and platform engineering teams. Notable customers include NASDAQ, Elastic, Snowflake, DoorDash, Splunk, Samsung, and Mulesoft.

How does Teleport compare to CyberArk? +

Teleport is a next-generation infrastructure access platform replacing legacy secret-based PAM with certificate-based identity. CyberArk is a traditional PAM vendor focused on privileged account management. Teleport is simpler, more developer-friendly, and designed for modern cloud and Kubernetes environments.

Is Teleport open source? +

Yes, Teleport is open-source software. The core platform is available under an open-source license, with commercial Cloud and Enterprise tiers offering hosted and self-hosted options with additional features and support.