Paperspace
Acquired8 known investors
Paperspace, now part of DigitalOcean, provides GPU compute infrastructure and AI products with on-demand pricing for machine learning workloads. The platform offers scalable compute resources that users pay for only when in use.
Also known as Paperspace by DigitalOcean · Paperspace dba DigitalOcean
Founders & leadership
Investors · 8
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Company profile
researched Aug 2026Paperspace is a cloud computing platform that provides GPU-accelerated infrastructure and tooling for machine learning, AI and graphics workloads. Its product line includes Core, a fully managed cloud GPU service offering virtual servers with a range of compute, storage and networking options and an API; Gradient, an ML platform covering hosted Notebooks, model training on virtual machines and deployment of models as scalable API endpoints; and Portal, low-latency desktop streaming software offered in limited preview. Adjacent use cases marketed by the company include cloud desktops (VDI), 3D workstations, rendering and gaming.
The platform emphasizes instant provisioning from pre-configured templates, abstraction of job scheduling and resource provisioning, automatic versioning and lifecycle management, team collaboration and utilization insights, and per-second billing on GPU instances. Paperspace states users can save up to 70% on compute costs relative to major public clouds or self-owned servers, with on-demand pricing, no commitments and the ability to change instance types at any time. Supported hardware includes NVIDIA GPUs such as the H100 Tensor Core, and, through a partnership with Graphcore, on-demand access to IPUs.
Following the 2023 acquisition, Paperspace operates as part of DigitalOcean; its site directs users to DigitalOcean.com for the full suite of GPUs and AI products, and its footer identifies the entity as "Paperspace dba DigitalOcean."
Founding story
Accounts of the company's origins date its start to 2014 in New York City, founded by Dillon Erb, Daniel Kobran and Joey Santo to address the cost and complexity of accessing GPU hardware for machine learning and AI, with an initial product offering web-launched GPU-powered virtual machines and virtual desktops instead of command-line-driven setups. The company's own blog states Paperspace started in the fall of 2014 with the mission of making cloud computing more accessible, betting on GPU acceleration and a simplified user experience. Y Combinator's profile lists a 2015 founding year and the Winter 2015 batch.
Business model
Paperspace sells cloud infrastructure and machine learning tooling directly to developers, teams and businesses, with free account signup and paid consumption of GPU compute, storage and networking resources.
Usage-based, on-demand pricing for GPU instances and related cloud resources, billed per second, with no long-term commitments and the ability to cancel at any time; free-tier GPU notebooks act as an entry point.
Traction
The company reports more than 500,000 builders/users on the platform, up from over 150,000 active user accounts at the time of its Series A, alongside a growing base of business customers; team size is listed as 50.
Latest developments
Paperspace is now part of DigitalOcean following the July 2023 acquisition; its website and product pages direct users to DigitalOcean for GPU and AI products, and recent activity includes H100 support, a Gradient installer for arbitrary compute clusters, the Graphcore IPU partnership, and joint appearances at NVIDIA GTC. Both named co-founders have since described Paperspace as their previous company and are working on Autonomous Technologies Group.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Paperspace positioned itself as an early, developer-focused provider of accessible GPU cloud services, differentiating on breadth of GPU instance selection and simplicity relative to larger public clouds; it is referenced alongside RunPod, CoreWeave, DigitalOcean, Lambda and Saturn Cloud in the GPU/ML cloud category.
Emphasis on radical simplicity and fast onboarding compared with more complex IaaS offerings, a broad selection of GPU instance types, per-second billing and on-demand pricing with claimed savings of up to 70% versus major public clouds, no commitments or runtime limits, free GPU notebooks, and multi-cloud/hybrid deployment options for its ML platform.
Technology
GPU-accelerated cloud infrastructure built around NVIDIA GPUs including the H100 Tensor Core, plus Graphcore IPUs via partnership. The stack provides an abstraction layer over accelerated compute with instant provisioning, job scheduling, resource provisioning, per-second billing, storage and networking options, a full public API and Node client tooling with API-key authentication, hosted notebook IDE environments, automatic versioning and tagging, model deployment endpoints, a Gradient installer for running Gradient on other compute clusters, and 3D application and desktop streaming support.
Go-to-market
Self-serve signup with free accounts and free GPU notebooks, Google and GitHub sign-in, documentation and quickstart guides, a referral program, developer community and forum, tutorial content published on the company blog, conference and meetup presence including NVIDIA GTC, plus a sales motion for business customers ("talk to an expert") and partnership channels.
Individual developers, researchers, startups, teams and enterprises working on machine learning and deep learning, generative AI and LLM applications, data science, 3D graphics and rendering, virtual desktops and gaming; the company also cites enterprise-oriented uses in areas such as medical imaging and autonomous vehicles.
Geography
Headquartered in New York City with team members working remotely around the world, and data centers established in multiple locations to serve an international user base.
History
Paperspace went through Y Combinator's Winter 2015 batch, then iterated on several versions before settling on GPU-powered virtual machines, finding early traction among deep learning developers. It raised a $13M Series A from SineWave Ventures, Battery Ventures and Intel Capital with follow-on from Initialized Capital, bringing total funding to $19M at that time; the company later cited $36M raised and backing from Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, Battery Ventures, SineWave Ventures, Intel Capital, Sorenson Capital and Data Collective. Product milestones included the launch of the Gradient ML platform in March 2018, a 2019 release adding CI/CD for ML and hybrid/multi-cloud and on-premise support, expansion of data center footprint, support for the NVIDIA H100, and a Graphcore IPU partnership. In July 2023, DigitalOcean acquired Paperspace for $111 million in cash, and the platform now operates within DigitalOcean.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 6
launches, deals, and filingsTechCrunch coverage linked from Paperspace's Y Combinator profile reports DigitalOcean acquired the cloud computing startup Paperspace for $111 million in cash. Paperspace's website and blog announce that Paperspace is joining DigitalOcean.
$111M source ↗
Paperspace and Graphcore partnered to offer on-demand access to Graphcore IPUs, including Notebooks powered by IPUs.
The company blog announced Paperspace support for the NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU.
A release introduced CI/CD for machine learning and enabled development across multi-cloud, on-premise and hybrid environments.
Press coverage listed by the company dates the launch of Gradient, a platform for training and deploying AI models in the cloud, to March 2018.
Paperspace announced a $13M Series A from SineWave Ventures, Battery Ventures and Intel Capital, with follow-on participation from Initialized Capital, bringing total funding to $19M at the time.
$13M source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Paperspacepaperspace.io · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Paperspace do?
- Paperspace is a cloud GPU and machine learning platform, acquired by DigitalOcean in 2023.
- Who founded Paperspace?
- Paperspace was founded by Dillon Erb.
- Who are Paperspace's investors?
- Paperspace's investors include Amino Capital, Battery Ventures, DCVC (Data Collective), Initialized Capital, Intel Capital, Ludlow Ventures, SINEWAVE VENTURES, Sorenson Ventures.