Ollama raises $88M to push open model inference and cloud

Ollama announced on July 9, 2026 that it raised $88M from Benchmark, Theory Ventures, 8VC, and a group of angel investors including Docker founder Solomon Hykes, ClickHouse CEO Aaron Katz, Cockroach Labs co-founder Spencer Kimball, and Y Combinator. The company says the funding will fuel work on seamless hybrid inference, support for new open models on the day they are released, and a cloud service that lets developers access powerful models without giving up ownership or privacy.

The announcement comes with updated usage figures. Ollama states it serves 8.9 million developers and that its software is used by 85% of the Fortune 500. The company also reports that its cloud service has more than doubled in token volume every month on average. Ollama's cloud currently offers models including GLM, Nemotron, DeepSeek, Kimi, and MiniMax.

From Docker Desktop to open models

The founders, Jeff and Michael, previously built Kitematic, a tool that simplified running Docker, which was acquired by Docker in 2015. Their work became Docker Desktop, launched in 2016 and now used by over ten million developers. The pair say they are applying the same approach to open models: making them as easy to run as any other piece of software, without permission, API keys, or expensive server hardware.

Ollama was built around three principles: ownership, affordability, and privacy. The company says open models are yours to keep, customize, and optimize, with no lock-in. Running models on your own hardware avoids per-token bills, and local execution keeps data on the machine. When scaling is needed, the same trust carries into the cloud.

What this means for inference engineers

For engineers serving open-weight models, the funding signals a push toward hybrid inference, which could blur the line between local and cloud execution. Ollama's stated goal of supporting new open models the day they are released suggests a faster cadence for integrating fresh architectures into its runtime and API. The token volume growth in its cloud indicates increasing demand for hosted open models, which may affect how teams plan their own deployment strategies.

The company positions itself as central to the open model ecosystem, with the funding as fuel to push that ecosystem forward. The emphasis on ownership and privacy in the cloud offering addresses a common concern among developers who want the convenience of hosted inference without sacrificing control over their models and data.

Ollama's founders compare the current moment to the personal computer shift, where the machine moved from the mainframe room to the desk. They argue open models are enabling that same shift for AI, making powerful models available to individual developers and small teams, not just those with access to proprietary APIs.