Lightrun grabs $70M using AI to debug code in production

Summary

AI-based coding has exploded in popularity on the promise that it will make developers’ jobs faster and easier. But AI coding has also resulted in something else: a vast increase in lines of code, and thus the likelihood of bugs resulting in crashes or other mishaps. On Monday, an Israeli startup called Lightrun, which has built an observability platform to identify and debug (remediate) code before those problems arise, announced a Series B of $70 million. The funding underscores not just the gap in the market for tools like these, but also Lightrun’s traction in meeting that demand. New backer Accel is co-leading the round alongside previous investor Insight Partners, with participation from Citi, Glilot Capital, GTM Capital, and Sorenson Capital. Lightrun has now raised $110 million to date, including a Series A led by Insight that we covered in 2021. The startup is not disclosing its valuation, but there are some strong signs that it’s doing well. First, there are its customers. Citi is a strategic backer and is one of an impressive list of big-name clients that also includes ADP, AT&T, ICE/NYSE, Inditex, Microsoft, Priceline, Salesforce, and SAP. Second, there is the product and the company’s timing for how it fits into the current market landscape. Back in July 2024, Lightrun announced a new AI-based debugging tool to use within organizations’ integrated developer environments (IDEs), appropriately called the Runtime Autonomous AI Debugger. Although the company’s platform was already delivering impressive results, this was the product that really spoke to the current predicament many enterprises are facing: AI is leading to a lot more coding and a lot more problems, and Lightrun had built an AI tool to address that. The company said that revenues have grown more than fourfold since it was launched, and that this is what got investors knocking. Andrei Brasoveanu, the Accel partner who led the investment for the firm, said that he’d had his eye on Lightrun (obse...