The key facts
- Blacksmith raised a $66 million Series C led by Sequoia, reaching a $1 billion valuation
- ARR grew 17x, and the platform has run more than 90 million CI jobs
- The company has raised $125 million in total; customers include Mercury and Granola
Valuation rose to $1 billion in two months
Blacksmith, a startup developing a platform for more efficient software building and testing, including AI-generated code, announced on Wednesday that it raised $66 million in a Series C round led by Sequoia. The round valued the company at $1 billion, making it a unicorn.
Mission — to make CI 'less painful'
Co-founder and CEO Aditya Jayaprakash said Blacksmith was founded to make continuous integration (CI) — the process of building, testing, merging, and validating code changes — 'less painful.' In a blog post, he noted that 'most companies struggle to keep up with the volume of CI they need to run,' especially in an era when a lot of code is written by AI. 'As agents write more and more of the world's software, the key question is whether it can be trusted,' he added.
Growth metrics
The company reported that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew 17x, and the platform has run more than 90 million CI jobs — individual automated code checks. Blacksmith's customers include Mercury and Granola.
Rapid pace of funding rounds
The Series C came just two months after a $45 million Series B that valued the company at $550 million. A year earlier, after a $10 million Series A, Blacksmith's valuation was $60 million. In total, the company has raised $125 million.
