"Being part of the Cluster program has given us the freedom to choose the tools we want from the start."
Tiina Romu
Software Team Lead at Huuva
Cluster up with Aiven
Aiven Cluster helps you grow your business by taking away all your data infrastructure worries so you can focus on the stuff that really matters – building your product.
With Aiven, you get all the tools you need to construct a modern data pipeline in one convenient place. Pump up your PostgreSQL® with super-fast scaling. Knock out some streaming data microservices with Apache Kafka®. Or dig deep into your data with OpenSearch® and visualize your results with Grafana®. And that’s just a taste of what you can do.
As well as up to $100,000 credit for Aiven’s fully managed services for one year, you get access to our expertise and support, and join the Cluster community of like-minded entrepreneurs and startups to help each other work towards greatness.
Benefits for selected startups
Credits
From $12,000 to up to $100,000 in credits to spend on Aiven services over a 12 month period. Credit amounts vary depending on qualification criteria.
Knowledge
Access knowledge and insight from your peers and from members of the Aiven team, or Crabs as we like to call them, through community channels, including the Cluster Slack, and Aiven Community Forums.
Promotion
Raise awareness of your company and your products by featuring on the Aiven blog, social media channels, and by participating in Aiven events,
Support
Access to Aiven's technical support service to ensure that you get the most from Aiven's service, and that you can meets needs of your customers as your business scales.
Events
Virtual events on relevant topics for early stage startups. Everything from data infrastructure, to product development, hiring and more.
Freedom
The opportunity to focus on building your business – not your data infrastructure.
What Cluster startups say about Aiven
Infrastructure is the most ignored piece in running a startup. Everything else is very front-facing - you can measure it, see it in action, but the infrastructure is always behind the scenes. So, as long as it's working, people are happy, but when issues arise, it's hard to identify and resolve them.
I think that's a problem that Aiven solves brilliantly.
Hariharan Ramkumar
Co-Founder at RevenueHero
Trusting Aiven with our data infrastructure management has freed up our team to focus on building our product, instead of getting bogged down in operational tasks. Looking back, I realize we could have saved valuable time and resources by making the decision to join Cluster earlier.
Henri M.
CEO & Co-Founder at Exolyt
Joining the Aiven Cluster program gives you room to explore different technologies without committing yourself to any plans or buying it right away. The sponsorship is really helpful to understand what building pieces we can use, and experiment with them before we build them into our final product.
Paul Rogalinski-Pinter
Senior Software Engineer at 4 Screen
Data infrastructure made easy
Aiven makes setting up cloud data infrastructure as easy as 1, 2, 3...
- Sign into Aiven Console
- Select the cloud provider, services*, tools, and plan that works for you
- Spin it up
...And you’re ready for action.
Our managed services
Introducing free plans for PostgreSQL®, MySQL and Redis®*
Get started quickly and easily with these popular open-source databases at no cost.
Learn more
How to apply to Aiven Cluster
Applying to the Cluster startup program is a simple three step process:
- Fill out the application form. It’s fun!
- Attach proof of affiliation with a Cluster partner or non affiliated VC.
- Chillax. You'll hear from us within 14 days of submitting your application.
Invest in startups – with Aiven
For startup accelerators, incubators and VCs, partnering with Aiven Cluster is an awesome way to offer additional value to your startup portfolio.
You’ll be supporting your existing and future portfolio companies, helping them save time and money, and giving them access to a best-in-class data platform.
It’s really simple to jump on board and it's totally free – just fill out this short form to let us know you would like to partner with us, and we’ll be in touch.
Cluster FAQ
Startup programs were critical to our early development and success, and their support helped us grow into the Unicorn we are today. As Aiven has now reached a maturity level where we are in a position to give back, we want to support other startups in their journey, helping them to scale up and grow.
In short, Aiven makes setting up cloud databases and the infrastructure needed for them to operate so simple that anyone can do it.
In a way, you could think of us as the plumbers of the internet. Our console lets developers and software architects set up their databases and get familiar tools on all major cloud platforms (like Google, AWS or Azure) in a matter of minutes. It’s simple, secure, and everything is open source, so you keep control of all your data. You can move it between cloud regions and providers, duplicate it, and do whatever you want with it – and you don’t have to jump through hoops to do it.
We provide a selection of reliable, open source products – tools like Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL, MySQL, M3, InfluxDB, OpenSearch, and more – that you can install at the click of a button.
But while we make it simple to set up your data, it’s what you do with it next that’s where the awesome happens.
You can find the application form here.
To be eligible to apply to Aiven Cluster startup program, you need:
- Proof of affiliation with an approved network partner (VC, accelerator, incubator, or co-working space)*
- Maximum startup age: 7 years
- Startup funding no greater than Series B
- A company website and associated email address
*If you are not affiliated with one of our partners, you can still apply and will qualify for maximum $12,000 in credits. We still require that you provide proof of having fundraised.
The Cluster startup program is only available to innovative technology companies and at the moment is not open to agencies, consulting companies, NGOs or educational institutions.
The amount of credits you are eligible for depends on:
- wether or not you are affiliated with one of the Aiven partners
- which partner you are affiliated with
- whether or not you have raised funding from investors
Please check the eligibility criteria and if you have any questions, send us an email at cluster@aiven.io.
Here is a full list of partners associated with Aiven Cluster.
No problem. We’ve created a lower credit tier for startups not associated with our partners. You can still apply and if you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be able to join the program and receive $12,000 in credits.
Please note that you will need to have raised funding in order to qualify for the credits.
If you haven't raised funding yet, you can still apply as long as you are affiliated with one of Cluster's accelerator, incubator or co-working space partners.
Yes - providing you meet the eligibility criteria.
Applications are accepted and considered continually, with new participants selected each month. Once you apply, please give us 14 days to review your application and, if needed, get back to you with any additional questions.
Newly accepted startups join the program on the first Monday of every month. Joint kick-off calls for new participants are held quarterly.
Please note that Aiven reserves the right to change the schedule as necessary.
Yes, seriously! You can use the startup program credits over 12 months to purchase the services, cloud data plans, and additional support that you need to build a modern modern data infrastructure.
What you build with our services is entirely up to you.
With 100K of Aiven credits, you could run a beefy PostgreSQL instance with 2TB of storage and half a terabyte of RAM (business-512) for 6 months. Or, you could take a modest Kafka Business-8 package ... and run that with plenty of spare credits left over for something else.
For a more complete package, how about a serious PostgreSQL business-64 service with workhorse OpenSearch business-32 service, a Redis business-64 for caching to keep your apps running nicely, an M3 for all your metrics (business-16 should do nicely) and Grafana to keep an eye on things - and you can run that for a year.
We conduct interviews with the most active startups in the program and promote them through our channels, for example, Linkedin, Twitter, blog posts, etc. See an example here.
When an applicant submits the application form, the applicant must agree to acknowledge that the use of the Aiven services is subject to Aiven online T&Cs which are to be accepted when signing in to the Aiven console, and that Aiven may always stop giving free credits or cancel any credits given.
The amount of credits awarded to successful applicants is up to $100,000 depending on the use of services.
Aiven reserves the right to cancel credits in order to be able to react in the event participant would breach the online T&Cs or would otherwise use the credits against the purpose of the Cluster program.
Please fill out this short application form and we'll reach out to you.
Your credits are valid for 12 months, so if you haven’t used them by the end of the program, they will expire.
Yes, you should still apply and indicate in the application form that you would like to start using credits later on. We can then discuss the best starting date for you.
The credit value depends on which partner you are affiliated with and can be as high as $100,000. If you are not affiliated with a Cluster partner, you can qualify for $12,000. Once you fill out the application form, we will let you know how many credits you are eligible for.
No. You can only receive Cluster credits once.
Aiven operates 24/7/365 monitoring on the Cloud Services and Aiven's personnel will be automatically alerted on any service anomalies. Aiven's personnel will commence work on any issues in system operations requiring manual intervention without delay.
For Cluster program participants, Aiven provides Basic level support without separate charge through email regarding problems related to using and accessing the Aiven Cloud Services. Responses are provided on a best-effort basis during the same or next business day.
You can read more about the support Aiven offers on https://aiven.io/support-services.
To access support, you will need to log a support ticket through the Aiven console.
Yes, you can access the difference between the lowest tier and the amount you are eligible for through affiliation with our partner. We can’t extend the time frame when you can use the credits, but we can grant you the difference. Reach out to us at cluster@aiven.io to discuss the details.
We don’t ask you to commit to using Aiven after you run out of credits. However, we think that you are going to like the product and and hope you'll stay with Aiven for the long run.