Clovyr

Clovyr was founded in 2018 by former J.P. Morgan blockchain leads Amber Baldet and Patrick Nielsen. The pair departed the financial giant, where they were instrumental in developing Quorum, an open-source enterprise version of Ethereum, to create a company focused on making decentralized and privacy-conscious applications more accessible. Baldet, who served as the blockchain program lead at J.P. Morgan, brought a background in product strategy and a reputation for bridging the gap between traditional finance and cypherpunk culture. Nielsen, previously the lead engineer for J.P. Morgan's blockchain projects and a security researcher, contributed deep technical expertise in cryptography and distributed systems.

The company operates as an application development and deployment platform designed to simplify self-hosting for a range of clients, from individuals and small teams to large businesses. Clovyr's core mission is to provide an alternative to the data-centric models of many Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products. The platform functions as a web-based orchestration engine, enabling users to deploy open-source applications—such as alternatives to Google Drive or Medium—onto their own infrastructure, whether it be a home server or a cloud account with providers like AWS or Digital Ocean, without needing specialized devops knowledge. This model allows businesses to reduce costs on per-seat software subscriptions while maintaining control over their data.

Clovyr's product is an ecosystem that functions like a decentralized app store, rejecting the "walled garden" approach of traditional marketplaces. For developers, the platform provides tools to package complex applications for one-click deployment, thereby growing their user and contributor communities. A key feature is Clovyr Code, a browser-based version of VSCode that connects to a private virtual server, allowing developers to work in pre-configured environments without complex local setup. For end-users, Clovyr offers a library of applications that can be launched and managed with a user-friendly interface. The platform is built with a focus on privacy, ensuring that user data does not pass through Clovyr's servers. To date, the company has raised $6.84 million in venture capital.

Keywords: self-hosting platform, decentralized applications, open-source software deployment, Amber Baldet, Patrick Nielsen, privacy-focused technology, SaaS alternatives, application development platform, cloud orchestration, developer tools, VSCode in-browser, blockchain application ecosystem, J.P. Morgan Quorum, data privacy, web3 infrastructure, application marketplace, secure software, devops automation, personal cloud, enterprise software solutions