Thoras helps companies become more reliable without spending too much money on cloud costs

For years, twins Nilo Rahmani and Jen Rahmani have shared stories — and cheers — about the struggles they face in their engineering careers.

Nilo told TechCrunch that the most common issue they discussed was frustrations with the trusted platforms they use at work. When he saw the trust space starting to move a few years ago, he thought he had enough knowledge to create a reliable trust system going forward.

“Before it was reliable first at any cost,” Nilo told TechCrunch. “Now (companies) are focusing on the cost of the cloud. The whole business is losing money because of this cost and the problem is getting bigger as the business grows.”

The Rahmani sisters decided to start Thoras to find an exciting solution that allows companies to achieve reliability without using a lot of cloud infrastructure. The Washington, DC-based company uses AI to help engineers quickly find and identify the root cause of software failures. Thoras also helps businesses find opportunities to optimize internal reliability to save on cloud costs.

Thoras says it can help companies find and solve problems 70% faster than other solutions and save companies up to 60% on cloud costs.

Nilo, the CEO, said that the platform was designed to reflect the flexibility of the requirements so that companies can better prepare for potential disruptions in reliability and use the right cloud infrastructure in advance.

Cloud visibility also includes several players including New Relic, Splunk, and Dynatrace. This category seems to be growing, too, with the advancement of AI. Linux and cloud computing company SUSE has announced a new cloud computing tool in November 2024.

Nilo said that what he thinks helps Thoras stand out is its AI system. Although Thoras is using machine learning, he said the company’s software does not use it for large models. Instead Thoras chooses small brands with a clear ROI. He added that many of his competitors are built around these LLMs, which are not always accurate and can cost a company money.

Thoras went private in January 2024 and raised $1.5 million in March 2024. The company has seen its revenue grow 360% in the past nine months. Now the company is announcing new funding it has raised to help meet customer demand.

The startup raised $5 million in seed funding led by Wellington Ventures with participation from Sinewave Ventures, Focal Ventures, and Storytime Capital, among other investors. The company plans to invest in hiring engineers, developing the products that are needed and to meet their needs.

“This cycle was very smooth,” said Nilo, likening it to a seed-planting competition. “We had incentives and metrics that confirmed that we understood the product market and what we needed to do to get to the next level.”

Thoras has been focusing on Kubernetes, which was intentional, but Nilo said part of its future expansion will include moving to other types of cloud applications.

Jen, the COO, told TechCrunch that she and Nilo never thought they’d start a company together — not even their immigrant parents, who were surprised they’d want to give up the security they’d always been afforded. But Jen explained that she and Nilo are “double powers” that use their twin-like connection to solve problems.

“At first, (our parents) were confused and scared for us,” Nilo said. “He always believed in us. Now they are happy to see what we are doing.”