Solomon Hykes
About Solomon Hykes
Solomon Hykes grew up in France and lives in San Francisco. He co-founded dotCloud, a platform-as-a-service company that grew into Docker. Public profiles say he ran dotCloud as CEO for five years, then focused on Docker. He was Docker's CEO until 2013 and its CTO until 2018. He was also a founding member of the CNCF Technical Oversight Committee.
Since 2019 he has been co-founder and CEO of Dagger, which builds a programmable CI/CD engine. Aggregator profiles list him as a board member of PostHog. They also list a master's and bachelor's degree in information technology from the European Institute of Technology, and an advisor role at Undefined Labs.
Hykes invests personal money as an individual angel. Investor databases disagree on how many deals he has done. Crunchbase lists 19 investments, Tracxn lists 26 portfolio companies, and PitchBook lists 34 investments. PitchBook records deals from 2023 to 2026, including Replicate and Playground (July 2023), Konvu (June 2024), Depot (August 2024) and Kapa.ai (October 2024). Tracxn names Algolia and Replicate among his most notable investments and counts exits that include Replicate, Agricool, Streamlit and Zenly. Crunchbase also shows him as a lead investor in Cloudoor.
His most recent AI-related deal on the Lounge deals desk is ZML's $20M seed round (July 2026). ZML is a French startup, founded by Steeve Morin, that launched LLMD, an inference server that runs open-source language models across Nvidia, AMD, Google TPU, Apple Metal and Intel Arc chips. Dealroom reports that 20VC led the round, with Kima Ventures and LocalGlobe participating.
Other AI and AI-adjacent names in his records include Ollama (PitchBook dates it July 2026), Replicate, Recall.ai, Kernel, Kapa.ai and Yuma AI.
The data shows early-stage investing, mostly pre-seed and seed, in software companies. Crunchbase labels his recent rounds as pre-seed or seed (Plakar, Yuma AI, Kapa.ai, Kernel, ZML), and Series B for Ollama and Recall.ai. Sectors named by the databases are developer tools, AI, enterprise infrastructure and enterprise applications. Tracxn lists the United States and France among his investment locations. AskForFunding lists AI and technology as his industries. I found no public check size, and no public statement from him on what he looks for in founders.
- ZML: chip-agnostic inference server for open-source LLMs; $20M seed in July 2026
- Ollama: tool for running open models, listed by PitchBook as a July 2026 deal
- Kernel: listed by PitchBook in October 2025; Tracxn shows a $22M Series A that month
- Recall.ai: business productivity software; PitchBook lists April 2025 and Tracxn shows a $38M Series B
- Plakar: data backup software; PitchBook lists May 2025, with Tracxn showing a $3M seed
- Replicate: platform for running machine learning models; invested in July 2023 per PitchBook
- Kapa.ai: developer software; invested in October 2024 per PitchBook
- Depot: developer software; invested in August 2024 per PitchBook
- Yuma AI: AI company; Crunchbase lists a seed round, date not shown
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/114163-66
- crunchbase.com/person/solomon-hykes
- tracxn.com/d/people/solomon-hykes/__hwbKa6_--ODLPgO9zuLXQcrxYQOmfboz-s
- app.dealroom.co/news/feed/french-startup-zml-raises-20m-launches-chip-
- socallinuxexpo.org/scale/22x/speakers/solomon-hykes
- sessionize.com/solomon-hykes
- askforfunding.com/investor/solomon-hykes-angel-investor
- areteindex.com/angels/solomon-hykes
Investing activity
Solomon Hykes appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $20M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $20M. The most recent is ZML (Seed, $20M, Jul 2026).
Solomon Hykes most often invests alongside Kindred Capital, Konstantin Vinogradov, Drysdale Ventures and >commit, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Solomon Hykes
Does Solomon Hykes invest in AI startups?
Yes. His recent deals include ZML (a $20M seed in July 2026), Ollama, Replicate, Recall.ai and Yuma AI. Much of this work is AI infrastructure and developer tooling.
What is Solomon Hykes' angel check size?
It is not public. Neither the investor databases nor his public profiles state a typical check size, so founders should not assume a figure.
What stage does Solomon Hykes invest in?
His deals are mostly pre-seed and seed, in software companies. Crunchbase also lists later rounds, such as Series B for Ollama and Recall.ai.
Who is Solomon Hykes?
He co-founded dotCloud, which became Docker. He was Docker's CEO until 2013 and its CTO until 2018. Since 2019 he has been co-founder and CEO of Dagger.
How can founders contact Solomon Hykes?
His public channels are LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/solomonhykes) and X (@solomonstre). I found no personal website and no public statement about how he prefers to be pitched.
Is Solomon Hykes an angel investor?
Yes. Solomon Hykes invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Solomon Hykes invested in?
Solomon Hykes's AI investments include ZML. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Solomon Hykes invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Solomon Hykes has invested at Seed, with a median round of $20M.
Who does Solomon Hykes co-invest with?
Solomon Hykes's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Kindred Capital (1 deal), Konstantin Vinogradov (1 deal), Drysdale Ventures (1 deal), >commit (1 deal) and Kima Ventures (1 deal).
How can founders reach Solomon Hykes?
Founders on Lounge can see Solomon Hykes's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Solomon Hykes to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.