Blacksmith Secures $10M Funding to Revolutionize AI Development with Rapid CI Solutions

Blacksmith Secures $10 Million to Transform AI CI Development

In the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), developers are increasingly challenged by slow and expensive Continuous Integration (CI) processes that can hinder project timelines and innovation. Recognizing this pressing need, Blacksmith has secured $10 million in Series A funding to deliver a game-changing CI solution specifically tailored for GitHub Actions.

A Quick and Efficient Solution

Strategically led by Google Ventures, this funding round closed in an impressive 14 days, emphasizing the urgency for a faster and more efficient CI service within the tech industry. Participating investors also included notable figures like Spencer Kimball, CEO of Cockroach Labs, and David Cramer, Co-founder of Sentry. This rapid engagement showcases the demand for Blacksmith’s innovative solution that changes the status quo of CI.

Blacksmith's platform promises to double CI speeds while slashing compute costs by up to 75%. With just a single line of code, engineering teams can migrate to Blacksmith and start reaping the benefits of swifter shipping processes within moments.

Unlike conventional CI services that typically rely on generic cloud services like AWS, Blacksmith leverages high-performance, gaming-grade CPUs. This unique approach ensures reliable performance without long queuing times, ultimately maximizing hardware efficiency.

Enhanced Observability

In addition to cost and speed benefits, Blacksmith also prioritizes enhanced observability for its users. The platform provides immediate visibility into failure diagnostics, merging test results from concurrent runs into a single, searchable interface. Engineering teams can effortlessly identify genuine failures and flaky tests, circumventing the burdensome tasks typically associated with conventional monitoring systems.

Blacksmith's roadmap includes expanding its observability capabilities beyond mere test analytics, offering teams invaluable insights into GitHub Actions that previously required costly in-house tools or third-party SaaS platforms.

The Catalyst for Continuous Progress

Aditya (JP) Jayaprakash, Co-Founder and CEO of Blacksmith, notes, "Most of the time, CI just gets in the way. We built Blacksmith to eliminate that drag, delivering predictable speed and cost savings alongside increased insights into pipeline performance. This has become essential, especially for teams utilizing AI code generation tools striving for rapid progress."

Since its inception out of Y Combinator's Winter 2024 batch, Blacksmith's growth trajectory has been remarkable, achieving a run rate of $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and tripling revenues in merely four months. Over 800 companies, including renowned names like Ashby, Chroma, Clerk, Devsisters, Mintlify, Pylon, Slope, Supabase, and VEED, have adopted Blacksmith's platforms for their CI needs.

Kamil Ogórek, API Lead Engineer at Supabase, stated, "Blacksmith cut our test times in half without us needing to lift more than a pull request. It feels like we're cheating, but we'll take it!"

Experienced Founders Leading the Charge

The founders of Blacksmith — Aditya Jayaprakash, Aayush Shah, and Aditya Maru — bring a wealth of experience gained through their previous roles at Faire and Cockroach Labs. They understand the costly ramifications that slow, unpredictable CI processes can have on teams, particularly in the context of AI-focused projects.

With the newly acquired funding, Blacksmith aims to expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, establish offices in San Francisco and New York City, and continue enhancing its observability stack for GitHub Actions. The focus will first be on test analytics, subsequently branching out into solving other pain points that hinder developers from efficiently merging their code.

About Blacksmith

Founded in 2024 by a team of engineers from Faire and Cockroach Labs, Blacksmith aims to revolutionize CI by providing faster, more cost-effective, and reliable services. By steering clear of hyperscaler solutions, Blacksmith operates on high-performance hardware equipped with gaming-grade CPUs, optimizing throughput and augmenting observability features. This innovative approach effectively eliminates bottlenecks, reduces infrastructure costs, and allows teams a clear view into pipeline health. In an era where rapid iteration is non-negotiable, Blacksmith is committed to facilitating quicker validation, safer deployments, and more competitive release schedules.