Developer productivity plays a vital role in the success of software development teams and organisations. As technology continues to advance and tech teams become more complex in terms of distribution and demand, the attention and emphasis placed on developer productivity have grown significantly. Last week we wrote about “The Surge of VC Funding in Devtool Startups, Scaleups and Unicorns” over the past 5 years and what this means for innovation in this field.
Today, we will explore three pieces of news that hit the developer productivity headlines from the past 2 weeks that further exemplify the importance and growth of developer productivity and experience.
WireMock: Revolutionising API developer productivity with a $6.5 million seed fund
WireMock, a pioneering company in API developer productivity, recently raised $6.5 million in seed funding for its API developer productivity platform, WireMock Cloud.
WireMock Cloud aims to fix the struggles developers face when building software for modern, API-rich architectures. Traditionally, developers encounter challenges with expensive live APIs, limited sandboxes, and unstable development environments. WireMock Cloud provides a comprehensive solution by offering a platform for developing and testing software in an API-dependent environment. It allows developers to simulate APIs, ensuring accurate and efficient development without relying on live APIs or inadequate sandboxes.
This approach significantly improves productivity by reducing development time, costs, and frustrations.
Cortex: Empowering engineering teams with an Internal Developer Portal
Cortex, the leading internal developer portal, secured an impressive $35 million in Series B funding.
Cortex’s platform addresses the challenges faced by engineering teams as organisations grow. With around 80 to 100 engineers, companies start experiencing difficulties with knowledge sharing and service management. Cortex’s internal developer portal tackles this problem by providing better visibility into the engineering organisation. It centralises information, tracks services, and ensures that critical vulnerabilities do not go unpatched.
Cortex’s success is evident from its 400% year-over-year revenue growth and its expanding customer base, which includes notable companies like TripAdvisor, Docker, Grammarly, Unity, and SoFi. By prioritising developer productivity, Cortex enables organisations to scale efficiently and streamline their software development processes.
Okay: Enhancing developer productivity through acquisition
Stripe, one of the world’s leading online payment processing platform, recently acquired Okay, a startup focused on analysing and enhancing developer productivity.
While such monitoring tools aren’t always favoured by developers as they can be unfairly biased as they focus on one or two metrics (e.g. lines of code written) rather than across a spectrum – this is usually down to user error. As we’ve discussed in previous articles, DX teams are better encompassing a wider range of metrics (e.g. as listed under DORA) and intelligent analytics platforms (e.g. Okay, Plandek, Swarmia and LinearB to name a few) to assess developer productivity holistically.
Regardless of the sceptics, Stripe’s acquisition of Okay demonstrates its commitment to improving developer experience and enabling businesses to build and scale their online platforms effectively.
This strategic acquisition highlights the recognition of developer productivity as a critical factor in driving innovation and growth in the digital economy.
The examples of WireMock, Cortex, and Okay exemplify the growing attention and emphasis placed on developer productivity. These companies are addressing the challenges developers face, such as API integration, knowledge sharing, and service management. By investing in innovative solutions and platforms, they enable developers to work more efficiently, reduce costs, and drive innovation. In an increasingly competitive landscape, organisations that prioritise developer productivity gain a significant advantage in delivering high-quality software and meeting the evolving needs of their customers. As the industry continues to evolve, it is crucial for businesses to recognise the pivotal role of developer productivity and continue supporting initiatives that foster growth and innovation.
References and Further Reading
PRNewswire: WireMock Secures $6.5M in Seed Funding to Transform API Developer Productivity
TechCrunch: Okay which analyzes engineers productivity sells to Stripe
