A Portland-based software maker will use a $4.1 million seed round to build its engineering team and go-to-market strategy.
The startup Depot makes software that speeds development processes, which co-founder and CEO Kyle Galbraith likens to that of building a car. Whereas along factory lines there are different steps to assembling cars, software developers use different steps in writing the code. They can send the code to a source control like Github, then build and test the software in a continuous integration system before deploying it into a production environment.
“Depot accelerates the bit once (developers) commit the code to the continuous integration system,” he said. It then uses compute tools to speed the build process.
The startup ultimately hopes to fundamentally change how software is built by addressing developers' needs and speeding up their work.
“If developers are happy and more productive, then businesses can innovate faster,” Galbraith said.
The startup, part of the winter 2023 Y Combinator program, has more than 1,800 organizations using its product. Over the last 12 months, Depot scaled to more than 1 million software builds a month.
Galbraith and co-founder Jacob Gillespie started fundraising in spring 2023 on the heels of the Silicon Valley Bank implosion.
“It was a weird time to be raising money,” Galbraith said. Plus, it was the start of the generative AI hype, when startups without AI attracted very little interest. Many companies in Depot's YC cohort who made a pivot to AI.
“As time went on, the numbers and (our) team spoke for itself,” he said of fundraising. “The fact that we scaled to 1 million builds a month as a three-person team, and the initial AI hype cooled. It became easier to position Depot as a developer tool to power AI companies.”
The round was led by Felicis and included Y Combinator, Aviso Ventures, Tokyo Black and several angels.
"All software development relies on being able to efficiently build as quickly as possible across both locally and continuous integration environments," said Jake Storm, partner at Felicis in a written statement. "Depot is scaling the build acceleration platform that will revolutionize developer productivity in all environments."
Depot is run by a globally distributed team of five. Galbraith, a born and raised Portlander, was here when the company started. However, he and his wife moved to her native France in 2023. He's currently on the West Coast regularly for YC-related events. Gillespie is based in London, and the rest of the team is across the U.S.
Galbraith is an alum of Portland software maker Zapproved, where he spent six years. In fact, Zapproved co-founder Chris Bright is a close adviser to Galbraith.
