Checkly Inc., a startup that helps developers monitor their applications for technical issues, has closed a $20 million funding round led by Balderton Capital.

The company detailed in its announcement of the investment today that returning backers Accel, CRV and Paul H. Müller chipped in as well. The Series B raise brings Checkly’s total outside funding to more than $32 million.

One of the methods that developers use to scan their applications for errors is an automated approach known as synthetic monitoring. It involves creating scripts that simulate user traffic to uncover technical issues. An e-commerce company, for example, might write a script that adds an item to its online store’s cart once a day to test that it works.

Checkly offers a cloud-based platform that eases the task of creating synthetic monitoring workflows. According to the company, the tool is up to 80% more cost-efficient than competing products. Checkly is also promising a significant reduction in the amount of time it takes to find and fix application malfunctions.

The company’s platform allows users to create synthetic monitoring scripts using Playwright, a widely used software testing tool that Microsoft Corp. open-sourced in 2011. Playwright owes its popularity in part to its emphasis on reliability. The tool only starts testing a web page or interface section when it’s done loading, which lowers the risk of errors, and can rerun a test if a malfunction still occurs. 

When a Checkly-powered synthetic monitoring script spots a technical issue, the platform sends an alert to the affected application’s developers. The platform can notify software teams when certain sections of an application’s interface stop working. It also spots other technical issues, such as situations where users experience slow page loading times.

Monitoring user-facing services is not the only task that Checkly supports. According to the company, customers can also use its platform to test application programming interfaces for errors. The platform is likewise capable of spotting malfunctions in scheduled jobs, scripts that perform recurring tasks such as backing up a database to the cloud once a day. 

Checkly’s installed base includes more than 1,000 companies including Autodesk Inc., 1Password developer AgileBits Inc. and other major tech firms. The software maker says that it helps developers at those companies check their applications for errors 32.5 million times per day.

To maintain its growth, Checkly will hire more employees and expand its platform’s feature set. The company debuted its newest capability, Checkly Traces, in conjunction with today’s funding announcement. The feature makes it easier to identify the root cause of application errors detected by Checkly-powered synthetic monitoring scripts. 

Image: Checkly