Cloudflare is going to great lengths to capture more of the startup market and challenge AWS, launching a $1.25 billion fund.

Cloudflare is a leading content delivery network (CDN) and a major force in the cybersecurity industry. The company has launched its “Workers Launchpad” funding program with the goal of helping startups grow their business with its Cloudflare Workers platform.

Cloudflare Workers is “a highly-scalable serverless computing platform that allows developers to build or augment apps without configuring or maintaining infrastructure.” As such, it competes with much larger companies, such as AWS. The company has partnered with 26 venture capital firms to provide the necessary funding for startups that commit to the platform.

“If there’s one thing venture capitalists look for in the companies they fund, it’s the potential to achieve significant scale. Startups that build on Cloudflare Workers are building on a platform made to automatically support serious scale,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “While we can provide the technology, we’re thrilled to partner with some of the leading venture capital firms on the Workers Launchpad Funding Program, who will potentially invest more than a billion dollars in funding towards great startups built on Cloudflare Workers as they scale.”

At least some in the industry see this as a major shot across the bow of AWS, as well as a potentially revolutionary approach to capturing market share.

“AWS EC2 changed everything when it launched 16 years ago. I see Workers, and the broader Cloudflare portfolio, in a similar place today. Serverless is the way to build apps in 2022,” said Eric Anderson, Partner at Scale Venture Partners.