Before a developer’s freshly shipped code is released into production, a review must take place to ensure security and identify any issues or bugs. An imperative step, these code reviews conducted by other developers can often stall the shipping process — leading to technical debt and time lost.
To address this time and money suck, Austin startup PullRequest created a platform to speed things up by combining a network of remote professional coders with automated solutions.
Investors have taken notice, sending $8 million toward PullRequest to help the company accelerate its own production.
“While code review can’t catch every bug or issue, it remains the most important tool in the development lifecycle,” said CEO Lyal Avery, in a statement. “We’re making it a better, faster, more efficient process by layering on AI-driven automation in conjunction with a network of professional reviewers.”
When a company is ready to launch a code review, they can request one by connecting their repository hosting service to PullRequest’s platform. From there, PullRequest deploys an automatic static analysis and lint engine customized to its client’s needs. Once that is complete, a professional code reviewer is selected to look through code changes and automation outputs, then send the client a note of suggestions, fixes and comments for approval.
If all looks swell, the company then continues on with its own CI/CD process.
We’re making [code review] a better, faster, more efficient process by layering on AI-driven automation in conjunction with a network of professional reviewers.”
Google’s Gradient Ventures led the Series A funding, which included participation from existing investors such as Y Combinator — the California-based accelerator PullRequest graduated from last year — Fika Ventures, Lynett Capital and Defy Partners.
Avery said the funding will be used to expand local and San Francisco-based teams and toward the release of an upcoming alpha program and pilot test. The startup will also use the capital influx to raise the number of languages and frameworks it supports from 30 to 60 by the end of 2018.
Its new alpha program, announced with the funding, will provide companies the ability to host PullRequest’s software on site, with on-demand access to code reviewers within their own data centers. A pilot program is also in the works to provide physical review teams to support “temporary or highly sensitive engagements within companies.”
This month’s funding brings PullRequest’s total to more than $10 million, after a $2.3 million seed round in December.
“We could not be more excited to double down on our initial investment,” said TX Zhuo, of Fika Ventures. “PullRequest has built a moat around becoming an essential part of development workflows allowing in-house resources to focus on high-value tasks and avoid costly bugs in production.”
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