Company Spotlight: Harness

Harness announced on February 10, 2025, that it is merging with API security startup Traceable, combining two companies founded by former AppDynamics founder Jyoti Bansal. Bansal wrote in a blog post that the combined company expects to generate more than $250 million annually this year, up 50 percent from 2024.

Harness Company Background

Harness, Inc. is a software delivery platform that provides tools and solutions aimed at improving engineering efficiency and streamlining the software delivery process. Founded in 2017, its headquarters is in San Francisco, California.

Funding

To date, Harness has raised a total of $575.35 million through various funding rounds. Their latest funding round was a Debt-III round where they raised $150 million. Investors include SVB Financial Group, Hercules Capital, Artisanal Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Institutional Venture Partners, among others.

Harness Business Description

The Harness software delivery platform provides tools and solutions to improve engineering efficiency and streamline the software delivery process.

History and Founding

Harness was co-founded in 2017 by Jyoti Bansal (CEO) and Rishi Singh (CTO). Bansal previously founded AppDynamics, then acquired by Cisco in 2017. Singh was a DevOps platform architect at Apple before co-founding Harness. Their experiences with DevOps, CI/CD, and software delivery led them to create Harness.

Bansal recognized that software delivery was complex and manual, often requiring additional personnel to manage deployments. He and Singh aimed to simplify the process and make continuous delivery accessible to every business. In October 2017, Harness raised $20 million in Series A funding from Menlo Ventures and emerged from stealth.

Mission

Harness's mission is to enable software engineering teams to deliver code reliably, efficiently, and quickly. They aim to provide the tools, knowledge, and resources necessary for software engineering teams to excel and revolutionize software development.

Platform

Harness offers an intelligent software delivery platform to help engineers deliver software more efficiently and with higher quality.

The Harness Software Delivery Platform includes product modules for:

- Continuous Integration

- Continuous Delivery

- Feature Flags

- Cloud Cost Management

- Service Reliability Management

- Security Testing Orchestration

- Chaos Engineering

- Software Engineering Insights

- Continuous Error Tracking

- Code Repository

- Internal Developer Portal

- Software Supply Chain Assurance

- Infrastructure as Code Management

- AI Development Assistant (AIDA)

Harness integrates with vendors across the DevOps stack to help developers develop, deploy, monitor, and fix distributed microservices architecture. The platform provides context for the application’s baseline environment and prompts automatic rollbacks when it detects irregularities. Harness automates much of the shipping code process while helping to ensure that bugs don’t enter live codebases.

How does Harness help enterprise software engineering teams?

Harness provides a software delivery platform to streamline and automate the DevOps process, helping enterprises achieve faster and more reliable software releases. By offering modules for continuous integration, continuous delivery, feature flags, and cloud cost management Harness enables teams to build, test, and deploy software more efficiently.

The platform's automation capabilities reduce manual processes and potential errors. Its continuous monitoring and feedback loops allow for quick issue resolution and improved product quality. This leads to increased agility, reduced production costs, and ultimately, greater customer satisfaction.

Harness facilitates collaboration and transparency across development, operations, and other teams, fostering a culture of shared responsibility. Its integration with various DevOps tools and focus on security (DevSecOps) further enhance its value. By enabling continuous delivery and providing real-time insights, Harness empowers enterprises to respond to changing business needs, innovate more effectively, and maintain a competitive edge. The platform's AI-driven capabilities further optimize DevOps workflows, making it easier for teams to manage complex deployments and ensure software reliability.

Targeted Customers

Harness targets medium to large enterprises with complex IT infrastructures. These businesses typically have a significant number of employees and rely heavily on technology. Harness's customer base includes software companies, IT service providers, telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and healthcare organizations. Geographically, Harness may initially target major tech hubs like San Francisco, New York, and Silicon Valley. They also focus on companies that are early adopters of technology.

Harness aims to reach a wider audience and convert leads into loyal customers by leveraging innovative techniques and tools. Harness implements targeted campaigns, personalized messaging, and data-driven approaches. Key strategies include developing an online presence and creating engaging content, participating in industry events and webinars, and collaborating with other companies for mutual benefit. They also showcase customer success stories to build credibility. Harness tracks results and makes adjustments for better performance, maintaining a customer-centric approach.

Current Harness Competitors

Harness operates in the competitive DevOps and software delivery market, with several major competitors including Azure Pipelines, Codefresh, CloudBees, Puppet, CircleCI, and Bitrise. Azure Pipelines dominates the continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) market with a 64.13% share, while Harness holds a smaller but growing position. Other competitors like Infinera DTN-X and Opsera also compete in this space, though they hold smaller shares. Harness differentiates itself through its AI-driven automation, scalability, and focus on continuous improvement, which streamline software delivery processes and reduce human error.

Harness's competitive advantages include its ability to automate the entire software delivery lifecycle, from code integration to production deployment. Its platform is highly scalable and integrates seamlessly with existing tools and workflows, making it adaptable for enterprises of all sizes. Additionally, Harness emphasizes security and compliance, which are critical for enterprise customers.

However, challenges remain in competing against established players like Azure Pipelines and CloudBees that have larger market shares and broader adoption. Harness positions itself as an innovative leader in the CI/CD space. However, its market share is still relatively small compared to top competitors, indicating room for growth as it continues to expand its offerings and customer base.to help engineers deliver software more efficiently and with higher quality.

Read also: DevSecOps