Highlights:

  • Checkly provides a cloud-based platform that simplifies the creation of synthetic monitoring workflows.
  • The company states that its platform also allows customers to test application programming interfaces for errors.

A startup assisting developers in monitoring their applications for technical issues, Checkly Inc., has secured USD 20 million in funding led by Balderton Capital.

In its recent investment announcement, the company revealed that returning investors Accel, CRV, and Paul H. Müller also contributed. The Series B funding round brings Checkly’s total external funding to over USD 32 million.

One way developers scan their applications for errors is through synthetic monitoring, an automated method that uses scripts to simulate user traffic and detect technical issues. For instance, an e-commerce company might create a script to add an item to its online store’s cart daily to ensure the functionality is working properly.

Checkly provides a cloud-based platform that simplifies the creation of synthetic monitoring workflows. The company claims that its tool is up to 80% more cost-effective than competitor’s products and promises a substantial decrease in the time required to identify and resolve application issues.

The company’s platform enables users to create synthetic monitoring scripts using Playwright, a popular software testing tool open-sourced by Microsoft Corp. in 2011. Playwright’s popularity is partly due to its focus on reliability; it begins testing a web page or interface section only after it has fully loaded, reducing error risks, and can rerun tests if issues persist.

When a Checkly-powered synthetic monitoring script detects a technical issue, the platform alerts the developers of the affected application. It can notify software teams if specific sections of an application’s interface fail to function and also identify other technical problems, such as slow page loading times.

Checkly’s platform supports more than just monitoring user-facing services. According to the company, customers can also use it to test application programming interfaces for errors. Additionally, the platform can identify issues in scheduled jobs, such as scripts that perform routine tasks like daily database backups to the cloud.

Checkly’s customer base exceeds 1,000 companies, including Autodesk Inc., AgileBits Inc. (the developer of 1Password), and other prominent tech firms. The software maker reports that it assists developers at these companies in performing 32.5 million error checks on their applications daily.

To sustain its growth, Checkly plans to hire additional staff and enhance its platform’s features. The company introduced its latest capability, Checkly Traces, alongside a recent funding announcement. This feature simplifies the process of pinpointing the root cause of application errors detected by Checkly’s synthetic monitoring scripts.