Israeli software testing startup Early has raised millions in fresh funding, the Tel Aviv-based firm confirmed in a statement.
Investment firm Zee Ventures, together with Dynamic Loop Capital, agreed a capital allocation that totals $5 million.
The company, which uses GenAI to generate unit tests, enabling developers and QA engineers to identify and single out potential bugs early in the software development cycle, only launched in August of this year.
Early CEO and co-founder Sharon Bar said the firm’s mission is to let “developers ship bug-free code, faster than ever while we take care of writing working unit tests on their behalf.”
He believes there is a clear appetite within the QA space for Early’s platform.
“Everyone is aware of the pain of writing unit tests and still failing to catch bugs, we are not the first ones addressing it,” Bar noted.
So what makes Early stand apart? “Most of them focus on improving processes or creating better tracking tools that does not stop developers from introducing bugs in the first place, he pointed out.
“We realised that to make a significant impact in improving software quality, we needed to take a different path,” Bar continued.
“Instead of adding more tasks to developers’ already full plates, we decided to remove one of their most time-consuming responsibilities: writing unit tests,” he said.
Bar explained that, to ensure the quality of our generated tests, the firm uses mutation testing, a process that assesses the quality of the generated tests by introducing small changes, or ‘mutations’, to the code and verifying that the tests catch these changes.
“This ensures the generated tests are comprehensive and highly effective at detecting potential issues,” he noted.
Code quality issues
The software industry has long grappled with the challenge of maintaining code quality. In the US alone, poor software quality in 2022costs $2.41 trillion, according to various reports in recent months.
“We have recently seen how even a simple out-of-bounds exception during CrowdStrike outage caused billions in losses,” Bar highlighted.
“This staggering figure underscores the critical need for improved code quality and testing practices.”
With new AI technology, Bar claims his firm can make a tool that changes how we approach code quality.
“We plan to take on the whole job of creating tests, acting as the AI test engineer working alongside every developer,” he said.
“This will not only help developers avoid bugs but also free up their time and mental energy to focus on the creative aspects of coding that truly drive business value. It is the first step in our vision to reshape the software development landscape.”
Future plans
With this funding, Bar excitedly said his startup plans to create “even better” product and experiences for developers, speed up our work on supporting more languages, IDEs and types of testing.
“And this is just the start, with the best-in-class team, we aim to become an AI agent for test generation and code quality, relieving developers from bug fixing altogether, and our starting point is far off from any solution that exists today.”
Since launching the company in August, Bar said Early created over 35,000 unit tests and more than 3,000 developers installed the firm’s VSCode extension.
“And the numbers keep growing,” he claimed.
NEXT MONTH IN SINGAPORE
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR THE QA FINANCIAL FORUM SINGAPORE 2024
Test automation, data and software risk management in the era of AI
The QA Financial Forum launches in Singapore on November 6th, 2024, at the Tanglin club.
An invited audience of DevOps, testing and quality engineering leaders from financial firms will hear presentations from expert speakers.
Delegate places are free for employees of banks, insurance companies, capital market firms and trading venues.
QA FINANCIAL FORUM LONDON: RECAP
Last month, on September 11, QA Financial held the London conference of the QA Financial Forum, a global series of conference and networking meetings for software risk managers.
The agenda was designed to meet the needs of software testers working for banks and other financial firms working in regulated, complex markets.
Please check our special post-conference flipbook by clicking here.
