JFrog Ltd. (FROG): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) is the backbone for secure, continuous software delivery, but do you defintely know how their 'Liquid Software' vision translates into a projected fiscal year 2025 revenue of up to $525 million? You're seeing the massive shift to AI-driven development, and JFrog is right in the middle of it, evidenced by their Q3 2025 cloud revenue growing 50% year-over-year to $63.4 million. That kind of performance, plus a 54% jump in customers spending over $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), shows they're not just selling tools; they're becoming the system of record for the entire software supply chain-so, what does this mean for their business model and your investment thesis?

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) History

You want to understand the foundation of JFrog Ltd., the company that essentially defined the modern software supply chain for developers. The direct takeaway is that JFrog started in 2008 by solving a single, painful problem-managing software binaries-and then strategically expanded that solution into a unified, end-to-end DevOps Platform, culminating in a successful 2020 IPO and a strong 2025 financial outlook.

This journey from a simple artifact repository to a comprehensive platform is the key to understanding its current market position and why it's projecting fiscal year 2025 revenue between $523 million and $525 million. That's a defintely strong trajectory.

JFrog Ltd.'s Founding Timeline

Year established

JFrog was established in 2008.

Original location

The company was originally founded in Netanya, Israel, a hub for high-tech innovation.

Founding team members

The company was co-founded by three veterans of the software world, all still deeply involved: Shlomi Ben Haim (CEO), Yoav Landman (CTO), and Fred Simon (Chief Data Scientist). They had a clear vision of what the future of software delivery needed.

Initial capital/funding

The company secured an initial seed funding of just $500,000 in 2008 from Gemini Israel Ventures. This is a classic example of a small initial capital investment fueling a massive idea.

JFrog Ltd.'s Evolution Milestones

The company's evolution shows a pattern of product-led growth followed by strategic acquisitions and major funding to scale. Here's the quick math on their early funding: the seed round was half a million, but by Series D, they were pulling in $165 million.

JFrog Ltd.'s Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory wasn't just about adding features; it was about two major, transformative shifts. First, they moved from a single product company to a platform company, and second, they expanded their focus from DevOps to the entire software supply chain, including security and governance.

• The Universal Artifact Repository Thesis: The initial focus on Artifactory solved a core problem-managing binaries, not just source code. This universal approach, supporting over 40 package types as of 2025, made them indispensable to large enterprises, including 70% of the Fortune 100.
• The Shift to a Unified Platform: The introduction of JFrog Xray in 2016, followed by Pipelines and Distribution, allowed the company to sell a single, integrated Software Supply Chain Platform. This move is paying off now, with customers adopting the end-to-end Enterprise+ subscription representing 56% of total revenue in Q3 2025.
• Embracing DevSecOps and MLOps: Acquisitions like Vdoo and the 2025 launch of Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of JFrog Ltd. (FROG).-aligned products like AI Catalog show a clear push to become the system of record for all software assets, including AI models. This is what drives the Net Dollar Retention rate of 118% for the trailing four quarters-customers are buying more of the platform.

What this estimate hides is the ongoing competition in the DevOps space, but the company's focus on binary management and platform consolidation gives it a strong, defensible moat. They're converting that platform adoption into cash, reporting $30.2 million in operating cash flow in Q3 2025.

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) Ownership Structure

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, and its ownership is overwhelmingly dominated by institutional investors, which is typical for a growth-focused technology firm with a market capitalization around $7.05 billion as of November 2025. This structure means that large asset managers and mutual funds, not the founders or retail investors, hold the primary voting power and influence over the company's long-term strategy and governance.

JFrog Ltd.'s Current Status

JFrog Ltd. is a public company, having completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in September 2020. Its stock trades under the ticker symbol FROG on the NasdaqGS. This public status subjects the company to rigorous reporting and governance standards set by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), providing transparency into its financial performance and ownership changes. For the full fiscal year 2025, the company projects revenue between $523 million and $525 million, with non-GAAP operating income expected to be between $87.3 million and $88.3 million. This financial outlook, coupled with a high institutional stake, suggests a focus on sustainable growth and enterprise adoption of its software supply chain platform.

JFrog Ltd.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership is heavily weighted toward institutions, reflecting confidence from major investment funds in its long-term market position in the DevSecOps (Development, Security, and Operations) space. Insider ownership, while significant, has seen recent net selling activity, which is something you should defintely note when reviewing alignment. This is the quick math on who controls the shares, based on the most recent filings from late 2025.

To be fair, a 14.10% insider stake is still a large holding, suggesting management's interests are closely aligned with shareholder returns, but the sheer size of the institutional block-over 85%-is the real driver of governance. You can dive deeper into the major holders by Exploring JFrog Ltd. (FROG) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

JFrog Ltd.'s Leadership

The leadership team is anchored by its co-founders, ensuring the original vision for the Liquid Software platform remains central to the strategy. The average tenure of the management team is about 5.2 years, which shows good stability for a growing tech company. The team is a mix of long-tenured founders and seasoned executives in finance, legal, and strategy, which is exactly what you want to see for scaling an enterprise-focused business.

• Shlomi Ben Haim: Co-founder, CEO & Chairman of the Board; has led the company since April 2008.
• Yoav Landman: Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO); the visionary behind Artifactory.
• Fred Simon: Co-founder and Chief Data Scientist; focuses on data strategy and innovation.
• Ed Grabscheid: Chief Financial Officer (CFO); oversees global finance, treasury, and investor relations.
• Tali Notman: Chief Revenue Officer (CRO); responsible for building and scaling the global sales team.
• Shanti Ariker: Chief Legal Officer; guides legal policy, compliance, and ESG initiatives.
• Gal Marder: Chief Strategy Officer; brings over 20 years of tech leadership experience.

What this estimate hides is the influence of a few key institutional shareholders, like Vanguard Group Inc., which held over 9.1 million shares as of September 30, 2025, giving them a strong voice in governance matters. The next step is to monitor any shifts in these major institutional holdings, as they often signal a change in market sentiment or a strategic outlook on the company's future performance.

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) Mission and Values

JFrog Ltd.'s core purpose is to eliminate the friction in software delivery, driven by a vision of 'Liquid Software' that ensures updates are fast, secure, and continuous. This commitment to speed and security is the cultural DNA that guides their projected $523 million to $525 million in fiscal year 2025 revenue.

JFrog Ltd.'s Core Purpose

You're looking beyond the balance sheet for the company's true north, and honestly, that's where the long-term value lies. JFrog's mission is fundamentally about enabling the modern digital economy to operate without hiccups. They don't just sell tools; they sell confidence in the software supply chain (the process of getting code from a developer's laptop to a user's device).

Here's the quick math: if a company can't update its software quickly and securely, it loses customers and market share. JFrog steps in as the 'system of record' for that process, which is why their cloud revenue jumped 50% year-over-year in Q3 2025 to $63.4 million.

Official Mission Statement

The mission statement is precise and action-oriented. It's about creating a world where software deployment is a non-event-seamless and reliable. This is defintely a high-stakes goal given the rise of AI and the complexity of modern applications.

• Create a world of software delivered without friction from developer to production.
• Power all developers and their companies to deliver software faster and more securely.

Vision Statement

JFrog's vision is wrapped up in the concept of 'Liquid Software'-a state where software flows continuously and securely, rather than being a series of painful, discrete updates. This is a powerful metaphor for their strategic direction, especially as they expand into DevSecOps (integrating security into every stage of development) and MLOps (managing machine learning models).

• Replace endless software updates with a single system of record that seamlessly delivers secure applications from developer to device.
• Envision a world where software updates are seamless, secure, and immediate.
• Drive the 'Liquid Software' concept across DevOps, DevSecOps, and MLOps.

To be fair, this vision requires massive investment. The company ended Q3 2025 with $651.1 million in cash and investments, which gives them the runway to chase this ambitious goal.

JFrog Ltd. Slogan/Tagline

Their tagline is a simple, strong descriptor of their identity and the core idea behind their platform.

• The Liquid Software company.

This focus on continuous flow and security is why their customer base with Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) over $1 million grew to 71 in Q3 2025, a 54% increase year-over-year. They are attracting the biggest players who need this level of operational excellence. You can dive deeper into how these elements shape their strategy here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of JFrog Ltd. (FROG).

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) How It Works

JFrog Ltd. operates as the central nervous system for the modern software supply chain, unifying the process from a developer's keyboard to the final production environment. It acts as the universal system of record for all software binaries (artifacts), ensuring they are stored, secured, and delivered continuously and traceably across any system or cloud.

JFrog Ltd.'s Product/Service Portfolio

The company's value proposition is a unified Software Supply Chain Platform that brings together DevOps, DevSecOps (security), and MLOps (Machine Learning) into one cohesive experience. This platform approach drives adoption among large enterprises, which accounted for a significant portion of the business, with customers adopting the end-to-end JFrog Platform Enterprise+ subscription representing 56% of total revenue during the third quarter of 2025.

JFrog Ltd.'s Operational Framework

JFrog's operational model is built on a 'land and expand' strategy, centered around its universal repository, Artifactory, which becomes an indispensable piece of infrastructure for its customers. The core value creation process is about eliminating friction in the software release cycle, which they call 'Liquid Software.'

Here's the quick math on their growth engine: the Net Dollar Retention Rate (NDRR) for the trailing four quarters was a strong 118%, meaning existing customers are consistently spending more on the platform year-over-year by adopting more products or increasing usage. Cloud adoption is a massive tailwind, with cloud revenue growing 50% year-over-year in Q3 2025 to $63.4 million. They defintely see the future in the cloud.

• Universal Artifact Management: Centralizes all software components-from traditional code packages to new AI models-in one place, making it the system of record.
• Hybrid/Multi-Cloud Delivery: Supports both self-managed (on-premises) and cloud-based deployments across major providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, offering flexibility.
• Consumption-Based Upsell: Cloud revenue growth, projected at 40-42% for the full year 2025, is primarily driven by customers exceeding their contractual minimums, which management then converts into higher annual commitments.

JFrog Ltd.'s Strategic Advantages

In a market with increasing pressure on software security and AI governance, JFrog's strategic position is becoming more critical. They are not just a tool; they are foundational infrastructure. For the full fiscal year 2025, the company projects revenue between $523 million and $525 million, a clear indicator of their market traction.

• The Platform Effect: The integrated nature of the platform-Artifactory, Xray, Pipelines-creates high switching costs, consolidating multiple vendor solutions into one.
• Enterprise Penetration: Serves 82% of Fortune 100 companies, including 71 customers with an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) over $1 million as of September 30, 2025. This enterprise focus provides a stable, high-value revenue base.
• Security and Compliance Leadership: The recent launch of products like JFrog AppTrust and Shadow AI Detection positions them as a leader in 'DevGovOps' (Development, Governance, and Operations), directly addressing new global regulations around AI and software supply chain risk.
• Financial Discipline: Despite a net loss of $56.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2025, the company maintains a strong Non-GAAP Gross Margin of 83.9%, which provides a healthy buffer for continued R&D investment.

To fully grasp the financial picture behind this operational strength, you should read Breaking Down JFrog Ltd. (FROG) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) How It Makes Money

JFrog Ltd. primarily makes money by selling subscriptions to its comprehensive software supply chain platform, which is critical for modern software development (DevOps). This revenue is split between customers who use the platform in the public cloud and those who manage it themselves on their own infrastructure (self-managed or on-premises).

JFrog Ltd.'s Revenue Breakdown

As of the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, JFrog's total revenue reached $136.9 million, reflecting a strong 26% year-over-year increase. The company's financial engine is clearly shifting, with Cloud services driving the fastest growth.

The Cloud Subscription segment, which includes hosting and managing the platform for customers, is the clear growth accelerator, surging by 50% year-over-year in Q3 2025 to $63.4 million. This segment now represents 46% of total revenue, up significantly from 39% in the year-ago period. The Self-Managed Subscription revenue, while still the larger portion at 54%, is growing at a much slower pace, around 10.5% year-over-year, as more enterprise customers migrate and expand their usage in the cloud.

Business Economics

JFrog operates on a classic Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) land-and-expand model, which is evident in its key economic metrics. The initial sale often starts with a core product like Artifactory (a binary repository manager), and then the company expands the relationship by selling additional modules like Xray for security and Pipelines for continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD). You can dig deeper into who is investing in this model by Exploring JFrog Ltd. (FROG) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

• Net Dollar Retention Rate (NDR): This metric, which measures how much existing customers increase their spending, was a healthy 118% for the trailing four quarters as of Q3 2025. This means the average existing customer is spending 18% more year-over-year, which is a powerful engine for organic revenue growth.
• Enterprise+ Platform Adoption: The shift to the unified JFrog Platform, specifically the Enterprise+ subscription, is crucial. This end-to-end offering represented 56% of total revenue in Q3 2025, up from 50% in the prior year. This higher-tier bundle, which includes DevOps, DevSecOps, and MLOps capabilities, drives higher Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
• High-Value Customers: The number of customers with Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) greater than $1 million grew by 54% year-over-year to 71 in Q3 2025, indicating deep entrenchment within large enterprises. That's defintely a key indicator of stickiness and platform value.

JFrog Ltd.'s Financial Performance

The company's financial health is characterized by high gross margins typical of a software business, coupled with a focus on achieving non-GAAP profitability while still investing heavily in growth areas like Cloud and AI-driven features such as the new 'AI Catalog' for secure AI model delivery.

• Gross Margin: The Non-GAAP Gross Margin in Q3 2025 was a very strong 83.9%, demonstrating the inherent efficiency and scalability of the subscription-based software model.
• Profitability & Cash Flow: JFrog reported Non-GAAP Operating Income of $25.6 million in Q3 2025, resulting in a Non-GAAP Operating Margin of 18.7%. This shows disciplined operations. Furthermore, the company generated $28.8 million in Free Cash Flow in the quarter, with a Free Cash Flow Margin of 21%.
• Fiscal Year 2025 Outlook: Management is guiding for full-year 2025 revenue to be between $523 million and $525 million, signaling confidence in sustained growth despite macroeconomic volatility.

Here's the quick math: A high NDR combined with a strong gross margin and positive free cash flow, even with aggressive growth investment, paints a picture of a sustainable, high-quality business model. What this estimate hides is the potential impact of unpredictable compute costs on future cloud growth, a risk management has acknowledged.

JFrog Ltd. (FROG) Market Position & Future Outlook

JFrog Ltd. is positioned as the core system of record for the world's software binaries, and its future trajectory hinges on successfully expanding this artifact management dominance into the high-growth areas of DevSecOps and AI/MLOps (Machine Learning Operations). The company forecasts full-year 2025 revenue to land between $523 million and $525 million, reflecting strong enterprise adoption and a crucial shift toward its comprehensive platform offering.

Competitive Landscape

In the artifact repository space, which is JFrog's foundation, the competition is a tight race for enterprise mindshare. However, the broader fight is against unified DevOps platforms that bundle in artifact management as a feature, not a core product.

Here's the quick math: JFrog Artifactory and Sonatype Nexus Repository own over 70% of the Repository Managers mindshare, but the broader DevSecOps market is highly fragmented, with GitLab holding an 11.6% mindshare in that category.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategic focus is clear: ride the wave of AI-driven development and the corresponding need for stricter software supply chain security. But, to be fair, that expansion requires significant investment, and it still faces the challenge of converting strong revenue growth into consistent GAAP profitability.

Industry Position

JFrog maintains a premium position in the software supply chain market, especially for large enterprises with complex, hybrid environments. Its core strength is its universal repository, which acts as a single source of truth for all software packages, regardless of language or technology.

• Universal Artifact Management: Supports over 30 package formats natively, which is a key differentiator against competitors often rooted in specific ecosystems like Java.
• DevSecOps Integration: JFrog Xray provides deep security scanning and compliance enforcement directly on the binaries in the repository, shifting security left in the development process.
• Hybrid/Multi-Cloud Focus: The platform is designed to operate seamlessly across on-premise, hybrid, and multi-cloud setups, appealing to Fortune 500 companies that defintely aren't moving everything to one cloud provider overnight.

The company's strategy is to sell the integrated platform (Artifactory, Xray, Pipelines) to maximize customer value and retention, evidenced by a net dollar retention rate of 118%. If you want a deeper dive into who is betting on this strategy, you should be Exploring JFrog Ltd. (FROG) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?