With $18M in new funding, EngFlow needs to hurry up your builds • TechCrunch

Again in 2015, Google launched an open-source port of its inside automation device for constructing and testing code. Dubbed Bazel (as a result of the inner device was referred to as Blaze), the service makes use of a Python dialect to assist builders write their guidelines and macros. As we speak, the tooling is utilized by corporations starting from Adobe to Databricks, Dropbox, LinkedIn and Redfin, so when the lead developer of Bazel at Google, Ulf Adams, and the lead of enterprise buyer onboarding for Bazel at Google and co-creator of BazelCon, Helen Altshuler, elevate new funding for his or her Bazel-centric startup EngFlow, it’s in all probability price being attentive to.

Because the staff introduced as we speak, EngFlow has raised an $18 million Sequence A spherical from Tiger World, Firstminute Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, which additionally led the corporate’s $3.7 million seed spherical. Cockroach Labs CEO Spencer Kimball, Github co-founder Tom Preston-Werner and Snowflake CFO Mike Scarpelli, in addition to Envoy creator Matt Klein and GitHub engineering VP Rachel Potvin additionally participated on this spherical.

EngFlow describes itself as a “construct acceleration firm” that helps its enterprise prospects extra effectively construct and take a look at their supply code, with help for Bazel, Chromium and the Android Platform.

“Once we are speaking about Bazel use at Google, an essential issue is that Google has built-in Bazel with a whole lot of developer companies,” Adams stated. “So it’s not simply the construct device, however you’ve distant execution, you’ve a consumer interface, you’ve protection runners for analyzing protection knowledge from the exams, you’ve integration with deployment, all of that stuff. We’ve been speaking to Bazel customers for 4 years and they’re in search of these items. Generally we are saying that Google is a snowflake, Google is particular, however we regularly see that different corporations wish to wish to do related issues. And so we thought there was a chance there.”

Altshuler additionally confused that more and more, enterprises are creating platform engineering groups that intention to convey a extra opinionated strategy to CI/CD to their groups. “That’s normally the viewers for Bazel to strive it to make it work for his or her particular firm — after which launch it to the engineers. These platform engineering groups are our main prospects, however behind each platform engineering staff, there are a whole lot, hundreds, perhaps tens of hundreds of engineers which are impacted by Bazel because of this and hopefully don’t should be Bazel specialists and know the entire internals — it ought to simply work for them,” she famous.

The staff famous that a whole lot of new prospects are migrating from Gradle or CMake to the service, so it’s perhaps no shock that EngFlow additionally not too long ago employed Jay Conrod, the developer of the open-source Gazelle device for migrating to Bazel (and likewise a former Googler).

It’s price stressing that whereas Bazel is a primary focus right here, the platform additionally helps Chromium and Android platform builds. Courageous, with its Chromium-based browser, is a buyer, for instance. For Courageous, EngFlow’s distributed construct system introduced construct occasions down from two hours to fifteen minutes. However nonetheless, Bazel is the primary focus right here and the staff as we speak additionally launched its Bazel Invocation Analyzer, a brand new open-source device that enables builders to get deeper insights into their Bazel profiles and optimize their builds.

“Construct is likely one of the most crucial elements of constructing software program. And historically it’s been an enormous time and value sink for corporations to get proper,” stated Martin Casado, Common Companion at Andreessen Horowitz. “EngFlow is the main firm altering all of this. Coming from deep roots in Bazel and construct, they’ve put collectively an answer which for the primary time we’ve ever seen, is ready to sort out essentially the most advanced code bases and enormous infrastructure environments and provide dramatic financial savings in improvement time and prices. These aren’t mere phrases, EngFlow has extraordinary buyer traction throughout a lot of verticals, way over we usually see at this stage. We’re delighted to be buyers and doubling down as EngFlow continues their path because the main construct firm.”

Given the recognition of taking Google open-source instruments and bringing them to the enterprise (hey, Kubernetes), it’s perhaps no shock that EngFlow isn’t the one startup on this area. YC-backed BuildBuddy, for instance, additionally provides a Bazel-centric construct system. In the meantime, well-funded Gradle Enterprise provides help for Gradle, Maven and Bazel as a part of its enterprise construct device.