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AI Business & IndustryTechCrunch AIPublished: Aug 12, 2026, 22:01 JST4 min read

AI code-testing startup Blacksmith valued at $550M in Series B, up 9x in under a year

AI code-testing startup Blacksmith valued at $550M in Series B, up 9x in under a year

Key takeaway

  • Blacksmith, an AI code-testing startup founded in 2024, has raised $45 million in Series B funding at a $550 million valuation—a nearly tenfold jump from its $60 million valuation less than a year earlier.

  • The company helps software teams automatically test and fix AI-generated code before it reaches production, serving more than 5,000 customers including Mercury, Supabase, and Expensify.

  • As AI coding tools accelerate code generation, validating that code has become a critical bottleneck, positioning Blacksmith to capture a growing market.

3 Key Points

  1. What happened

    Blacksmith, founded in 2024, raised $45 million in a Series B led by Peak XV Partners, valuing the company at $550 million—up from a $60 million valuation when it raised $10 million in Series A less than a year ago. The startup now serves more than 5,000 customers, including Mercury, Supabase, Clerk, Ashby, and Expensify, up from more than 700 customers less than a year ago.

  2. Why it matters

    As AI coding tools like Cursor, OpenAI's Codex, and Anthropic's Claude Code make writing code faster, validating and testing that code has become a major bottleneck for software teams. Blacksmith's platform—which includes Codesmith, an AI coding agent that automatically fixes failed code checks—addresses this gap, and the company has grown revenue to "tens of millions of dollars" with some largest customers spending more than $1 million annually on the platform.

  3. What to watch

    Blacksmith is expanding into a broader suite of coding tools aimed at helping developers write, validate, and merge software faster. The startup competes against GitHub Actions, Cursor Automations, and code-testing services from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, positioning itself on testing speed and affordability.

In Depth

Read the full story

Blacksmith, founded in 2024, raised $45 million in Series B funding led by Peak XV Partners, with existing investors GV and Y Combinator also participating. The round values the startup at $550 million, a dramatic increase from the $60 million valuation assigned during its Series A less than a year earlier, bringing total funding to $58.5 million.

The company addresses a critical gap in modern software development. As AI coding tools such as Cursor, OpenAI's Codex, and Anthropic's Claude Code have made it significantly easier to generate code, validating that code has become an increasingly significant bottleneck. "Validating code is still a bottleneck, and it's an even bigger bottleneck because people are writing even more," CEO Aditya Jayaprakash said in an exclusive interview. Blacksmith helps companies build, test, and verify software before it reaches production, starting as a cloud provider for continuous integration workloads and broadening into a platform that includes Codesmith, an AI coding agent capable of automatically fixing failed code checks.

The startup's growth has been substantial. It now serves more than 5,000 customers, including Mercury, Supabase, Clerk, Ashby, and Expensify—up from more than 700 less than a year ago. Jayaprakash said the company reached a $10 million annualized revenue run rate with just 10 employees and has since grown its workforce to about 30 while scaling revenue to "tens of millions of dollars." Some of the largest customers spend more than $1 million a year on the platform, though Jayaprakash declined to disclose an updated ARR figure.

Looking forward, Blacksmith plans to expand into a broader suite of coding tools to help developers write, validate, and merge software faster. The company competes against GitHub Actions, Cursor Automations, validation capabilities embedded in Codex and Claude Code, numerous other startups, and code-testing services from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Jayaprakash said Blacksmith is differentiating on the speed of testing code and affordability.

Context & Analysis

Blacksmith's valuation jump reflects the urgent need for code validation in an AI-accelerated development landscape. As AI coding tools have made it significantly faster to generate code, the quality bottleneck has shifted downstream: testing and verifying that code before it reaches production. The startup started as a cloud provider for continuous integration workloads but has broadened its platform to include Codesmith, an AI coding agent that automatically fixes failed code checks—directly addressing the validation bottleneck CEO Aditya Jayaprakash identified.

The customer growth—from more than 700 to more than 5,000 in less than a year—and the revenue acceleration to "tens of millions of dollars" (from a $10 million annualized run rate with 10 employees when the Series A closed) signal strong product-market fit. However, Blacksmith operates in a crowded market; competitors range from GitHub Actions and Cursor Automations to validation capabilities embedded in OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code, as well as code-testing services from major cloud providers. The startup's stated competitive advantages are testing speed and affordability.

FAQ

How many customers does Blacksmith serve?
Blacksmith now serves more than 5,000 customers, including Mercury, Supabase, Clerk, Ashby, and Expensify, up from more than 700 customers less than a year ago.
How much revenue does Blacksmith generate?
Blacksmith has grown revenue to "tens of millions of dollars," with some of its largest customers spending more than $1 million a year on the platform.
When was Blacksmith founded?
Blacksmith was founded in 2024.

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