Happy pi day! The past few months have been a high point for Linkerd. Momentum has never been stronger, with adopters and contributors flocking to the project every day. Many of the newest adopters tell us that they arrived at Linkerd for a simple reason—it was simpler, lighter, and faster than anything else they tried. Sometimes, Linkerd was the only thing that even worked.

Turns out we weren’t the only ones who noticed this trend. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that GV (formerly Google Ventures), along with existing investors Benchmark and A Capital, have invested \$10 million in Buoyant to further Linkerd’s development. We’ll be using this money directly to make Linkerd even better and more featureful, while staying true to our principles of speed, lightness, and most importantly, simplicity.

GV’s investment comes at a fascinating time in the service mesh space. Options abound, confusion is rife, and the air is thick with the heady aroma of vendor marketing. Through this, we’ve done our best to ignore the noise, keep our heads down, and focus on solving actual problems for our users. And that’s given us our secret weapon—an active and vocal community that has kept us focused and honest about what mattered to them.

So to all of Linkerd’s many adopters and contributors, here’s a heart-felt thank you. We couldn’t have done this without you. Stay tuned for lots more to come. This is just the beginning.

— William, Oliver, and the rest of the Linkerd team at Buoyant

(P.S. Want to join the party, too? We’re hiring!)