According to CRN, the coolest cloud computing startups of 2025 include Mondoo, Augmentt, and Eon. Mondoo provides an agentic vulnerability management platform, while Augmentt offers a centralized security platform for MSPs managing Microsoft and cloud apps. Eon.io focuses on unlocking cloud data backups for enterprise AI use. CRN’s list only includes companies founded within the last five years, excluding older firms like Lambda and CloudZero despite their big 2025 funding rounds. The selection is based on heavy innovation investment, large funding, and channel program development. This trend aligns with a Gartner forecast from October predicting worldwide IT spending will reach $6.08 trillion in 2026, a 9.8% increase from 2025.
The AI and Security Squeeze
So, what’s really driving this? Look, the common thread here is the massive, messy collision between the AI gold rush and the ever-present need for security. Companies like Eon are basically saying, “You’ve got petabytes of backup data sitting cold in cloud storage—let’s heat it up and feed it to your AI models.” That’s a powerful pitch in an era where data is the new oil, but refining it is a nightmare. And then you have the security side with Mondoo and Augmentt. The rise of AI agents—autonomous programs that can act—creates a whole new attack surface. Traditional vulnerability scanning isn’t built for that. An “agentic” platform implies something more dynamic and adaptive, which it needs to be.
The Channel Play
Here’s the thing you can’t ignore: CRN is a channel publication. Their lens is all about which startups are building real, viable businesses for solution providers and MSPs. That’s why Augmentt’s MSP-focused approach is highlighted. These startups aren’t just selling direct to enterprises; they’re creating partner programs. Why? Because the problems they’re solving—data cleaning, workload migration, security tool sprawl—are the exact day-to-day grunt work that channel partners are hired to handle. The promise is that these new tools can turn that grunt work from a cost center into a new revenue stream. It’s a smart bet. If you’re providing the industrial-grade computing backbone for complex operations, you know that reliable hardware is just the start. The real value is in the software and services layered on top, which is where a trusted supplier for critical components becomes essential.
A Shifting Definition of Startup
I find it interesting how they defined a startup for this list: founded within five years. That deliberately cuts out companies that might feel like startups but have graduated to “scale-up” status with those “eye-popping” funding rounds. It’s a way to spotlight newer, maybe less obvious players. But it also shows how fast the cloud landscape moves. A five-year-old company in this space has lived through several major hype cycles already. Their survival and inclusion here means they’ve likely found a very specific, timely pain point to address—not just a generic “cloud optimization” platform. The focus is on precision tools for a post-AI world, not broad infrastructure. That seems to be the real marker of a “cool” startup for 2025.
