Blacksmith announced it has secured $10 million in Series A funding, led by Google Ventures. The company’s mission is simple yet impactful: to enhance Continuous Integration (CI) by making it faster, more cost-effective, and providing greater visibility for engineering teams who work with GitHub Actions.
CI is a crucial part of the software development process that shouldn’t cause anxiety for developers. Sadly, many developers find it cumbersome due to its slow speed, high costs, and unpredictability. In the fast-paced world, especially with the rapid advancements in AI, the speed at which software can be developed and deployed is a key competitive advantage. When CI processes are inefficient, they can severely hinder ambitious development timelines.
What is particularly noteworthy is that this funding round closed in just 14 days, which speaks volumes about the demand for a better solution in an industry that has long endured stagnant practices. Alongside Google Ventures, several previous investors and influential angels participated in the funding, highlighting the growing recognition of Blacksmith’s potential in the market.
Blacksmith’s approach to CI offers remarkable improvements. The company claims to double the speed of CI processes while drastically cutting compute costs by as much as 75%. This means that engineering teams can migrate their existing systems with the straightforward addition of just one line of code, allowing them to start delivering new updates and features in a matter of minutes. What sets Blacksmith apart from many traditional CI providers is its unique use of high-performance, gaming-grade CPUs tailored for speed. Instead of relying on generic cloud hardware options like AWS, Blacksmith ensures that its system delivers reliable performance without causing unnecessary delays or queuing. This level of efficiency ensures that users maximize the potential of their hardware.
In addition to enhancing speed and reducing costs, Blacksmith introduces a game-changing feature: observability. The platform provides teams with instant access to crucial information, allowing them to quickly diagnose problems when they arise. By unifying the test results from parallel runs into a single, searchable view, teams can more efficiently identify real issues, such as test failures or infrastructure problems. This capability helps developers avoid the typical burdens associated with traditional monitoring solutions, which often require significant time and resources.
Moreover, Blacksmith’s commitment to observability is just beginning. The company plans to expand its capabilities to offer even deeper insights for users of GitHub Actions. Many of these advanced features have historically required expensive SaaS platforms or complex in-house tooling. Blacksmith is working to democratize access to these essential tools, making it easier for teams to obtain the information they need to streamline their development processes.
Since its launch as part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch, Blacksmith has experienced impressive growth. The company has reached $1 million in annual recurring revenue and has tripled its revenue in just the past four months. Over 800 companies now trust Blacksmith to manage their GitHub Actions, including well-known names like Ashby, Chroma, Clerk, Devsisters, Mintlify, Pylon, Slope, Supabase, and VEED. This wide adoption speaks to the reliability and effectiveness of Blacksmith’s innovative solution.
The founders of Blacksmith, Aditya Jayaprakash, Aayush Shah, and Aditya Maru, bring to the table their extensive experience in software engineering. They met while studying at the University of Waterloo and have previously built large-scale distributed systems at companies such as Faire and Cockroach Labs. Their firsthand experiences in the industry have given them a deep understanding of the frustrations caused by slow and unpredictable CI processes, particularly in the fast-evolving landscape of AI-driven development.
Looking to the future, Blacksmith intends to utilize its new funding to broaden its engineering and market outreach teams, establishing offices in both San Francisco and New York City. As they continue to develop their observability stack for GitHub Actions, they will focus on critical areas such as test analytics, ultimately striving to eliminate any barriers that inhibit developers from seamlessly merging their code. This forward-thinking approach positions Blacksmith as a pivotal player in the evolving landscape of software development, promising a more efficient and effective CI experience for teams around the world.
KEY QUOTES:
“Most of the time, CI just gets in the way. We built Blacksmith to remove that drag, deliver predictable speed and cost savings, and now, to give teams more insight into what’s really happening inside their pipelines. This is even more important for teams that are using AI codegen tools and want to move quickly.”
Aditya (JP) Jayaprakash, Co-Founder and CEO of Blacksmith
“Blacksmith cut our test times in half without us lifting more than a pull request. Feels like we’re cheating, but we’ll take it.”
Kamil Ogórek, API Lead Engineer at Supabase
