German cloud-based devtool Gitpod, used by most big tech teams, raises $3 million seed round

Gitpod, an open-source developer platform that automates ready-to-code environments in the cloud, has raised $3 million in funding and announced a native integration with GitLab. The seed round was led by Speedinvest with participation from Crane Venture Partners and Vertex Ventures US. The startup claims to be the first such open-source solution for developers; co-founder and CEO Sven Efftinge says “a vibrant open-source community” has built up around the product. With Gitpod’s integration into GitLab, developers can perform code reviews, fix bugs, build new features and explore new projects with fresh dev environments, created in one click. “With software engineering moving to remote but collaborative work, we see Gitpod securely allowing multiplayer mode for developers while saving VPs of Engineering hundreds of hours of tool setup-time,” said Sandeep Bhadra, Partner at Vertex Ventures US. Perhaps that's why big tech companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber and Intel are already on board. Founded in Kiel last year, this is the software startup’s first fundraise. The funding will be used to further refine the platform, as well as to expand Gitpod’s open-source community and ecosystem partnerships.