Software engineering-focused artificial intelligence startup Faros AI Inc. said today it has closed on a $20 million early-stage funding round, bringing its total amount raised to $36 million.

The Series A investment was led by David Hornik of Lobby Capital and saw participation from existing investors SignalFire, Salesforce Ventures and Operator Collective.

Faros AI is the creator of an AI-native engineering intelligence platform that brings operational data from the entire software development lifecycle into a single pane of glass.

The startup, whose founders previously created Salesforce Inc.’s Einstein AI tools, explained that engineering organizations today struggle with a lack of visibility into their software development operations. The resulting lack of insight hampers engineering productivity, Faros AI says.

For example, because of the fragmented nature of the software technology stack and the use of remote developer teams, it can take companies a long time to identify bottlenecks in their software development processes. Engineering teams can have a poor grasp of software development processes and lack the visibility to do anything about it, and that’s what Faros AI seeks to fix.

The Faros AI platform makes it possible for teams to automate the integration of engineering data, creating a more complete picture of their software operations to enable actionable insights. In this way, software engineering can be streamlined through the use of AI, enabling developers to work smarter and do more with less.

The platform is centered around an AI engine called Lighthouse AI, which will be generally available in the third quarter. The company said Lighthouse AI is designed to enable a series of AI-powered features that will help teams to make sense of the huge amounts of data created by engineering organizations. Engineers will be able to talk to the platform in natural language and perform exploratory data analysis, generating insights to boost software development processes.

The company said Lighthouse AI can provide visibility into every aspect of software engineering, including developer velocity, quality, cost, team health and organizational goals. By making this data available and actionable, engineering teams can maximize the efficiency of their company’s software development operations.

Faros AI said it has tripled its customer base over the last 12 months, while quadrupling its revenue. Notable customers include Salesforce, Box Inc., Coursera Inc. and Firstbase.io Inc.

“Every aspect of software engineering will be transformed by AI in the next five years,” said Faros AI co-founder and Chief Executive Vitaly Gordon.

The CEO said it was especially gratifying for the company to win the backing of Hornik, whom he described as one of the most successful venture capital investors in Silicon Valley. “David was on the front seat of the observability, DevOps and edge computing revolutions,” Gordon noted.

“The Faros AI founding team has already delivered a market-leading engineering intelligence platform,” Hornik said.

Image: Faros AI