Diffblue, a world leader in AI for code, today announces that it has raised $22 million in Series A funding, one year after its spin-out from the University of Oxford.
This round is led by Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments, alongside Oxford Sciences Innovations (OSI) and Oxford Technology and Innovations Fund (OTIF).
Diffblue’s core AI builds an exact mathematical model of any code base. This model allows a very deep semantic understanding of what a program is trying to do.
Diffblue are launching three products that are built on the core engine: a testing product that automatically spots bugs and writes tests; a security product that automatically flags up exploitable bugs and generates tests for those bugs; and a refactoring product that automatically rewrites badly expressed or out of date code.
In the past coders have had to do these tasks manually, or rely on tools that check the syntax of a code base without understanding the semantic meaning. Diffblue’s suite of products will help coders write much better quality code, much more quickly – coders typically use up 30 per cent of their time manually writing tests – so the cost savings are potentially enormous.
The code-testing product, which will be fully integrated with continuous integration servers such as Jenkins and software repository providers such as GitHub, is now available for Java and C. Under development are the Python, JavaScript and C# versions of the testing product, as well as the security and refactoring product.
Lilly Bussmann, Principal at Oxford Sciences Innovations (OSI) said: “We’re proud to be supporting one of Europe’s most exciting tech startups. In a world that’s increasingly run by software, Diffblue’s mission of equipping developers and organisations with the next generation AI-powered dev tools is a very worthwhile one, both in terms of its economic and social impact.
“To us, Diffblue is a great example of how world-class research undertaken at Oxford can result in truly innovative technologies being put in the hands of end-users. We’re very excited to be working with Diffblue in the years to come.”
Daniel Kroening, Professor of Computer Science at University of Oxford and founder of Diffblue, said:“Software is becoming increasingly complex, interdependent and vulnerable and it’s unrealistic to believe that humans can guarantee its safety and security. The products we are developing at Diffblue’s use AI to empower users to develop code of a far higher quality and security standard than would have been possible before. In doing so, it eases the burden of testing which is one of the biggest pain points for developers, and frees up their time to focus on what they do best.
“We are delighted to welcome Goldman Sachs as an investor and we look forward to working closely with them as we continue to expand Diffblue’s capabilities and product suite.”
Barnaby Martin, Chairman of Diffblue said: “We’re proud to have closed one of Europe’s largest Series A rounds for an AI company. The fact that this has been completed inside just one year since the company’s inception is testament to Daniel and his incredible team. We look forward to working with our investors as we continue to roll out market-leading products.”
