Software development platform Buildkite raises $31 million Series B

Software development startup Buildkite has raised US$21 million (A$31m) in a Series B round.

Local VCs OneVentures and AirTree led the round with Up bank founder Dom Pym also chipping in alongside US firm General Catalyst.

The Melbourne devops tech company previously raised $28 million in 2020 at a $200 million valuation.

It’s just the third raise the company’s undertaken since a $200,000 seed round when it was founded in 2013. The business now has a remote team of 80.

The fresh capital is earmarked towards the launch of new developer-focused products and to expand the operations, marketing and sales teams.

The platform allows developers to build, test, and deploy software at scale. It has more than 1,000 customers and works with more than 30,000 engineers to develop their software infrastructure.Buildkite CEO and cofounder Keith Pitt said demand for remote and hybrid work has accelerated the need for software development teams to adopt autonomous tooling to unblock and avoid lapses in productivity.

“The engineer in me is always curious about how our customers build and develop software, and after many chats with them, it’s become clear that many of the other tools they use block them from doing their best work,” he said.

“With this next round of funding, I’m excited to invent new dev tools for the software being developed today, and for the software that hasn’t even been written yet.”

General Catalyst MD Trevor Oelschig said Buildkite’s growth and customer base wasn’t a surprise to his firm.”Keith is a classic product- and customer-centric builder. The team shares his passion for learning and empowering developers who are building enduring companies across multiple industries,” he said

Airtree partner James Cameron said Buildkite been quietly building one of the most impressive set of developer tools in the world,

“They have also been building one of the most enviable customer bases we’ve ever seen – including many of the world’s most innovative tech companies like Uber, Canva, LinkTree, Shopify, Venmo, Slack, Stripe, Twilio, Segment, Discord, Rabobank, and Twilio,” he said.

“But what stood out even more was how much these customers love their products—I don’t think we’ve ever had as many positive customer testimonials as we had from their devoted fan base.”