Diffblue closes investment round to take total venture funding to $32 Million
Oxford-based Diffblue, which has created what it says is the world’s first AI-for-code solution that automates writing Java unit tests, has closed of a funding round led by IP Group Plc with participation from Oxford University, Oxford Technology Investment Fund (OTIF) and private investors. To date, Diffblue has raised more than $32 million in venture funding.
Mathew Lodge, CEO of Diffblue, said: “With billions of lines of Java code running in production today, companies need to be able to rapidly ship high quality software and Shift Left.
“Without Java unit tests, it’s difficult for any CIO to move an organisation to agile or cloud native and adopt modern CI/CD processes. Diffblue’s first product, Cover, automates writing unit tests with artificial intelligence technology. Investors see automated code-writing as a massive opportunity as more Diffblue customers like AWS, Citigroup and S&P Global embrace our solution.”
According to a 2021 Diffblue developer survey, 83 per cent of developers say their code could be better, with 40 per cent wanting more unit tests. The 2021 Gartner® Market Guide for AI-Augmented Software Testing Tools report noted, “The market for software testing tools is rapidly moving from supporting simple test execution to applying AI throughout the full software test cycle. Software engineering leaders must build a portfolio of multiple tools and capabilities to support AI-augmented software testing.”[1]
Unit tests help organisations ensure that their software has fewer defects and exposes bugs earlier, improves the readability of code to simplify maintaining and improving software, enables safe reuse of software and accelerates the time to market of new software services and features for better customer experiences.
Mark Reilly, Managing Partner at IP Group Plc who led the financing round, said: “AI is revolutionizing efficiency and quality in every sector.
"For all of us who rely on software every day, Diffblue is the leader in applying AI to overcome the programming failures that cause delays, economic loss and even danger to life. For developers, it frees more of their time to focus on building products, not writing tests.”
Diffblue Cover automatically generates Java unit tests at speeds up to 250x faster than humans. Diffblue Cover today supports Java, the most popular enterprise programming language in the Global 2000. The technology behind Diffblue Cover is also planned to be extended to support other popular programming languages.
