New York-based software firm Astronomer raised nearly $100 million from major investors in May – just a few months before its CEO Andy Byron was caught on the “kiss cam” at a Coldplay concert snuggling the firm’s head of human resources.
Astronomer – a privately-held software firm that helps clients streamline and organize their data – announced in May that it had “secured $93 million in Series D funding” from backers that included Bain Capital, Salesforce, Venrock and Meritech.
“While this is just one step in Astronomer’s journey to build a durable, lasting software company, we’re thrilled to have one of our earliest investors, Bain, leading the round,” Byron said in a statement at the time.
“All of our investors are committed to Astronomer’s long-term vision because of our recent momentum, the massive market demand for the platform we’re building, and the macro tailwinds that support our vision.”
So far, none of those investors have commented on the uproar over the viral video showing Byron and Astronomer’s HR chief Kristin Cabot scrambling to get off camera – which prompted Coldplay frontman Chris Martin to joke, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
Other firms listed as investors on Astronomer’s website include JP Morgan Chase, Insight Partners, Sierra Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and KS Global.
To date, the company has raised more than $350 million from outside investors since it was founded in 2015, according to data from Crunchbase and other funding trackers.
Astronomer’s board of directors includes Byron as well as Venrock’s Ethan Batraski, investor John McMahon, Sutter Hill Ventures’ Scott Yara, Sierra Ventures’ Tim Guleri and Bain Capital Venture’s Enrique Salem.
The Post has reached out to the board members for comment on the video but has yet to hear back. Astronomer has also not returned requests for comment.
Some tech insiders joked that the incident, which has spawned countless memes and jokes on social media, provided Astronomer with a visibility boost.
“Board should give him a raise,” quipped Flexport CEO Ryan Peterson. “Without this viral moment, I’d never know that Astronomer is used by enterprise clients to manage apache airflow and achieve 70% higher uptime than self-managed airflow.”
Astronomer is a mid-sized firm with 369 employees, according to its profile on Pitchbook.
The company relocated to an office on West 23rd Street in Chelsea in February 2024 after previously being headquartered in Cincinnati, according to blog post.
Astronomer bragged that the new office space’s “spacious layout helps facilitate collaboration and features a great view of the Empire State Building,” as well as a roof deck for hosting events.
“Cincinnati was an incredible place for us to start our company and we will continue to have a presence in Cincinnati,” Byron said in a statement at the time. “Now, we’re excited to build a bigger presence in the NYC area.”
As The Post reported, one former colleague of Byron’s alleged that he was a “toxic” boss.
“The text groups and chains of former employees are like … everybody’s laughing their ass off and enjoying the hell out of what happened and him getting exposed,” said the source, who reported directly to Byron.
Byron joined Astronomer as its CEO in July 2023, according to his now-deleted LinkedIn profile.
Prior to that, he had stints as president of California-based firm Lacework, chief revenue officer at Cybereason and president and COO of Fuze.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
