Harness Inc., a startup specializing in continuous software delivery, announced today its merger with Traceable Inc., a company focused on API security. This move aims to integrate Traceable's cybersecurity technology into the development and operations processes.
Both Harness and Traceable were founded and led by Jyoti Bansal, who serves as CEO. Harness was established in 2017 to assist in software development workflows. Over time, it has evolved into a platform that uses machine learning algorithms to monitor software releases, helping to prevent issues during the build and deployment phases. Traceable, launched in 2020, focuses on securing, safeguarding, and testing APIs, which serve as communication bridges between different software components.
Prior to founding these companies, Bansal created AppDynamics, which was acquired by Cisco Systems for $3.7 billion just before its planned IPO in 2017.
Harness's Continuous Delivery-as-a-Service platform enables developers to focus more on coding while identifying errors and problems before small updates are pushed to production environments. It achieves this by automating tests and tasks within the development process, detecting anomalies, bugs, and potential issues before they reach users. If certain issues do make it to production, the platform automatically rolls back changes to minimize their impact on customers.
This approach is commonly referred to as CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery). It allows companies to frequently roll out small updates, sometimes multiple times per day or week. In the past, software development typically involved accumulating updates and releasing them monthly. However, the new paradigm demands that developers keep up with rapid feature releases.
This continuous development model forms the foundation of DevOps, a set of practices and technologies that merge software development and IT operations teams to enhance the speed and reliability of software releases.
As the demand for faster release cycles grows, so does the need for security at every stage of the development lifecycle. Engineering and security teams are increasingly working together, as vulnerabilities in code during fast development cycles must be detected early to prevent exploitation.
"Software teams should not have to choose between speed and security when innovating for customers," said Bansal, adding that unifying security and development will benefit both customer groups. "Over the past year, there has been significant acceleration in interest from Harness and Traceable customers for an integrated DevSecOps platform, making now the right time to meet this industry need."
Harness stated in the announcement that the merged entity will focus on autonomous AI, which refers to intelligent agents capable of making decisions with minimal human intervention. The two companies are collaborating to build an AI-native agent library and dataset to power this initiative, enhancing the speed and security of application delivery.
The merger is expected to close later this month or early next month. The combined company will have approximately 1,100 employees and is projected to generate $250 million in annualized revenue for 2025, representing a 50% increase over last year, with a valuation of around $5 billion.
