Insider Brief
- Infield, a company specializing in open-source dependency management, has announced $3M in funding led by Foundation Capital, YCombinator, Firsthand Alliance, and several individual investors.
- Infield’s technology uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to analyze changelogs and identify potential breaking changes in open-source package updates, helping manage the complex process of updating software dependencies which often number over 500 for an average application.
- Founded by Steve and Allison Pike, and Andrew Lenehan, Infield’s solution automates the dependency update process, addressing issues such as optimal update order and breaking changes, thus enabling engineers to focus on software creation rather than management.
PRESS RELEASE — NEW YORK/January 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Infield today announced $3M in funding for its comprehensive open-source dependency manager. The round was led by Foundation Capital with participation of YCombinator and Firsthand Alliance. Adam Gross (former CEO of Heroku), Jonathan Siddarth (founder of Turing) and Austin Ogilvie (founder of Thoropass) also joined as investors. Infield makes open-source dependency upgrades safer and more efficient.
Software organizations use hundreds of open source packages, from small utilities to whole platforms. The average software application depends on over 500 open source components. These packages and dependencies can get updated frequently, fixing security issues or improving reliability and performance. However, installing all dependency updates in the right order can be a headache. Some updates include “breaking changes”, which can cause systems to stop working unless other changes or updates are made first.
“Engineers want to be running on the latest, newest open source versions, but it’s just so much to keep track of,” said Steve Pike, founder and CEO of Infield. “Sometimes there are dozens of updates a week and you don’t know which ones are important and which might cause problems. On the other hand, the longer you wait, the harder it gets as the dependency updates multiply.”
Infield is the first open-source dependency update manager that’s focused on identifying breaking changes. Infield employs Large Language Models (LLMs) to ingest changelogs and spot any signs that a particular update could cause issues, combined with the company’s deep database of popular open-source packages and users’ experiences in upgrading them.
Infield manages the details of dependency updates, remediating breaking changes where required, as well as figuring out the optimal order for updates. Once connected for the first time, Infield quickly scans a company’s dependencies and creates the pull requests needed to get up to date, even if the update backlog is months or years long.
Infield was founded by Steve and Allison Pike, former CTO and COO of SevenFifty, and Andrew Lenehan, a second time founder. Steve was working as a consultant helping companies manage their dependency upgrades when he realized that a software solution could help automate the process. The remote-first company already has several paying customers.
Lauri Moore, partner at Foundation Capital, said “As software architectures become increasingly complex, keeping software dependencies up to date has become both a critical need and a growing pain point for companies. Infield’s fully managed approach to dependencies, updates and upgrades, using AI to detect and mitigate breaking changes, frees engineers from a constant, frustrating task. Steve’s deep and personal experience in this problem space has shaped his exceptionally clear vision for a future where software engineers get to focus on software creation, not software management, and we’re excited to partner with him, Allison and Andy.”
“Open source dependency updates matter for security, compliance and performance, but they’re also a part of building a world-class engineering culture” said Steve Pike, founder and CEO of Infield. “Engineers want their systems to be running the latest versions, and get frustrated when the backlog starts to pile up. Infield allows developers, DevOps and DevSecOps to focus on their core jobs, without having to worry about an update breaking their production systems.”
About Infield
Infield is on a mission to make open source software as safe and easy to update as Google Chrome. Using LLMs and deep knowledge of common packages, Infield makes dependency management painless while handling breaking changes.
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