Startups > Temporal Technologies

Temporal Technologies

Temporal helps developers build reliable, scalable applications with durable workflows.

Series C $650M total Founded 2019 Bellevue, Washington 267 employees

Temporal is a durable execution platform that enables developers to build scalable, fault-tolerant applications using Workflows-as-Code. Instead of building complex retry logic and state management separately, developers write business logic in their preferred programming language while Temporal handles persistence, retries, task queues, and error recovery. The platform is built on 20+ years of expertise from the engineers behind AWS SQS, AWS SWF, Azure Durable Functions, and Uber's Cadence orchestration engine.

Problem solved

Developers waste significant time building and maintaining retry logic, state management, and error handling across distributed systems instead of focusing on core business logic.

Target customer

Engineering teams at Series B+ companies building microservices, event-driven systems, or complex distributed workflows. Includes companies like Netflix, Datadog, and OpenAI.

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Founders

Samar Abbas

CEO & Co-Founder

Former Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft Azure EventHubs; created the Azure Durable Task Framework. Previously CTO before swapping roles with Maxim Fateev in 2024.

Maxim Fateev

CTO & Co-Founder

Led development of Amazon SQS messaging infrastructure in 2004 and co-launched AWS Simple Workflow Service. Built Cherami and Cadence at Uber. Previously held roles at Google and Microsoft.

Funding history

Seed $6.8M 2019 Led by Amplify Partners

Series A $18.8M 2020 Led by Sequoia Capital

Series B $103M 2022 Led by Index Ventures

Series B-Prime $75M February 2023 Led by Greenoaks · Amplify Partners, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Madrona, Addition Ventures

Series C $146M March 31, 2025 Led by Tiger Global · StepStone Group, Amplify Partners, Index Ventures, MongoDB Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Conversion Capital, Hanwha Next Generation Opportunity Fund, 137 Ventures

Tender Offer $105M October 1, 2025 Led by GIC · Tiger Global, Index Ventures

Series D $300M February 17, 2026 Led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) · Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Index, Tiger, GIC, Madrona, Amplify

Total raised: $650M

Industries

Information Technology Internet Open Source Software

Pricing

Dual model: Open-source server is free (Apache 2.0 licensed, self-hosted). Temporal Cloud is a managed service with usage-based pricing adopted by 2,500+ customers globally with 4.4x revenue growth in past 18 months.

Notable customers

Datadog, Glovo, Indeed, Netflix, Qualtrics, Remitly, Snap, Yum! Brands, OpenAI, Replit

Integrations

Docker, Kubernetes, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), various programming languages via SDKs

Tech stack

GSAP (JavaScript frameworks) React (JavaScript frameworks) web-vitals (JavaScript libraries) Next.js (Web servers) Mapbox GL JS (Maps) Prism (UI frameworks) Open Graph Module Federation DocuSign Contentful (CMS) Linkedin Insight Tag (Analytics) Google Analytics (Analytics) FullStory (Analytics) reCAPTCHA (Security) HSTS (Security) Font Awesome (Font scripts) Google Font API (Font scripts) Node.js (Programming languages) Google Workspace (Email) Unpkg (CDN) Marketo (Marketing automation) Google Tag Manager (Tag managers) Salesforce (CRM) Vercel (PaaS) Amazon Web Services (PaaS)

Website

temporal.io/

Competitors

Prefect

Workflow orchestration platform focused on data pipelines; less emphasis on durable execution and state management for general applications.

n8n

No-code workflow automation platform; Temporal is code-first and requires programming expertise but offers deeper control and flexibility.

Apache Airflow

Primarily designed for data pipeline orchestration; Temporal serves broader distributed systems and microservices use cases.

AWS Step Functions

AWS-native workflow service with limited language support; Temporal offers multi-language SDKs and can run on any cloud or on-premises.

Why this matters: Temporal represents a next-generation approach to distributed systems reliability, built by the engineers behind AWS SQS, Azure Durable Functions, and Uber's battle-tested Cadence system. Its $5B Series D valuation and 4.4x revenue growth reflects strong enterprise adoption and the growing market need for managing complexity in microservices architectures.

Best for: Engineering teams at mid-market to enterprise companies building distributed systems, microservices, or event-driven architectures who need reliable, maintainable workflow orchestration without operational complexity.

Use cases

Financial Transaction Processing

Banks and fintech companies use Temporal to orchestrate money transfers between accounts with guaranteed durability and automatic retries. If a transfer fails mid-process, Temporal automatically recovers from the exact point of failure without data loss or duplicate transactions.

E-Commerce Order Processing

Companies like Yum! Brands use Temporal to manage complex order workflows including payment processing, inventory updates, and fulfillment. The platform ensures orders are tracked reliably even if individual services go down.

AI/ML Model Training Orchestration

OpenAI uses Temporal to manage long-running image generation workflows. The platform handles interruptions, retries, and state persistence across distributed compute resources.

Infrastructure Deployment Automation

Companies deploy cloud infrastructure with Temporal by defining multi-step deployment workflows that are recoverable, auditable, and can be paused/resumed without manual intervention.

Alternatives

Apache Airflow Better for data engineering and ETL pipelines; Temporal is more general-purpose for any distributed system needing durable execution.

AWS Step Functions AWS-native with JSON-based workflow definitions; Temporal offers more flexibility with code-first approach and multi-cloud support.

Prefect Focused on data workflows with visual UI; Temporal requires code but provides deeper control and state management for complex business logic.

FAQ

What does Temporal do? +

Temporal is a durable execution platform that enables developers to build reliable, scalable applications with fault tolerance built-in. You write your business logic (workflows) in code, and Temporal handles state persistence, retries, task queues, and error recovery automatically. This eliminates the need to build complex infrastructure for handling failures and state management.

How much does Temporal cost? +

Temporal offers a free open-source server (Apache 2.0 licensed) that you can self-host at no cost. For teams wanting a managed service, Temporal Cloud uses usage-based pricing. Contact Temporal's sales team for specific pricing details based on your workflow volume.

What are alternatives to Temporal? +

Key alternatives include Apache Airflow (focused on data pipelines), AWS Step Functions (AWS-native), and Prefect (visual workflow builder for data). Temporal differentiates by being code-first, multi-language, and purpose-built for any distributed system requiring durable execution.

Who uses Temporal? +

Temporal is used by companies like Netflix (500K daily workflows), Datadog (3M+ monthly workflows), OpenAI, Snap, Indeed, Remitly, and Yum! Brands. It serves engineering teams at Series B+ companies building microservices, event-driven systems, and complex distributed workflows.

How does Temporal compare to AWS Step Functions? +

Both are workflow orchestration platforms, but Temporal is cloud-agnostic and supports multiple programming languages natively, while Step Functions is AWS-specific and uses JSON-based definitions. Temporal offers more flexible code-first development and can run on any cloud or on-premises infrastructure.