Harness Raises $85M Series C at $1.7B Valuation

Harness, the company developing a comprehensive collection of engineering tools designed to provide businesses of all sizes with capabilities comparable to those of major tech corporations, has announced the completion of an $85 million Series C funding round, resulting in a company valuation of $1.7 billion.

This latest investment follows a $60 million Series B round secured in 2019, which valued the company at $500 million, demonstrating substantial and rapid growth. This represents a noteworthy advancement for a company established only three years prior.

Alkeon Capital spearheaded the current funding round, with participation from new investors including Battery Ventures, Citi Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Sorenson Capital, and Thomvest Ventures. The company also disclosed a previously unreported $30 million B-1 round completed after the Series B, bringing the total funding raised to $195 million.

Jyoti Bansal, the founder and CEO of Harness, previously established AppDynamics, which was acquired by Cisco in 2017 for $3.7 billion. His successful history attracted investor interest in this round, further bolstered by nearly tripling of the company’s revenue in the last year.

“The company’s performance is strong, leading to significant proactive outreach from the investment community seeking to participate. We weren’t initially planning to raise another round until later this year, as we had sufficient capital. However, the level of investor enthusiasm was considerable,” explained Bansal.

He further noted that the company could have potentially secured twice the amount of funding, but determined that the current level was appropriate for its needs. “The investment community clearly recognizes the potential within the developer tools and DevOps sectors. The emergence of numerous large, publicly traded companies in this space over the past three to five years has further validated this market,” he stated.

Bansal founded the company with the ambition of enabling all organizations to achieve the same level of engineering effectiveness as industry leaders like Google or Facebook. While this presents a significant challenge given the resource disparities between large corporations and others, he believes it is achievable through innovative software solutions.

The company initially focused on developing a continuous delivery module, followed by a cloud cost-efficiency module. Last year, Harness acquired Drone.io, an open-source continuous integration company, and is currently integrating it into its platform, which is presently in beta. Additional modules are planned for release throughout the current year, according to Bansal.

Throughout 2020, as the company experienced revenue growth and expanded its platform, it also significantly increased its workforce, growing from 200 to 300 employees during the pandemic. Bansal intends to add another 200 employees by the end of the year. Harness has earned a reputation as a positive work environment, recently being recognized on Glassdoor’s list of best companies.

Bansal, as a seasoned entrepreneur, prioritizes the creation of a diverse and inclusive company culture. “Providing equal opportunities and being open to hiring individuals from various backgrounds is essential, but it requires a proactive approach to ensure that the company environment and culture are genuinely welcoming to all,” he said.

Building a company during the pandemic, onboarding numerous new employees, and fostering a sense of belonging has been challenging. Bansal observed an increase in productivity during the pandemic but is now focused on preventing employee burnout.

He explained that employees initially struggled to establish clear boundaries between work and personal life. To address this, the company introduced a program offering one paid day off per month for employees to recharge. Harness also recently announced a “work from anywhere” policy post-COVID, while still intending to maintain regional offices for in-person collaboration when necessary.