Unblocked Secures $20M to Enhance Developer Tools with AI Code Assistance

Unblocked has secured $20 million in Series A funding to develop an AI tool that helps developers understand complex codebases. The financing round, led by B Capital and Radical Ventures, brings the company's total investment to $30 million, including contributions from Amplify Partners, First Round Capital, and XYZ Capital. The challenge of understanding others' code is a common struggle for developers, even within companies that enforce coding best practices and create extensive documentation. Dennis Pilarinos, the founder of Unblocked, knows this issue well. With experience as a director at Microsoft and Amazon, where he worked on Azure and AWS, respectively, Pilarinos later founded Buddybuild, a continuous integration platform for remote teams. Apple acquired Buddybuild in 2018, and Pilarinos spent the next two years contributing to the Xcode Cloud platform. "When developers try to find the information they need, it can be painful and time-consuming," Pilarinos explained in an interview with TechCrunch. "Our goal is to leverage all available data, code, and conversation history to provide developers with straightforward answers." Unblocked integrates seamlessly with popular development environments and applications like Slack, Jira, Confluence, Google Drive, and Notion. The tool collects intelligence about a company's codebase and assists developers in answering contextual questions, such as locating user metrics definitions or finding out who modified a specific module. Admins can easily manage the system, ensuring smooth adoption across the organization. The company is also exploring partnerships with platforms like Cursor and Lovable to further enhance code explainability. Moreover, Unblocked is developing advanced tools that go beyond just answering queries. One such tool, Autonomous CI Triage, helps developers test code under various scenarios. This proactive approach aims to streamline the development process and reduce the time spent debugging. Several prominent companies, including Drata, AppDirect, Big Cartel, and TravelPerk, are already leveraging Unblocked's platform. According to Pilarinos, engineers at Drata have reported saving one to two hours per week thanks to Unblocked. Rob Toews, a partner at Radical Ventures, sees significant potential in Unblocked's solution. As AI-generated code becomes more prevalent, Toews believes that understanding the context and history of code will become increasingly challenging. "There's a growing belief that much of the software in the future will be written by AI," Toews noted. "This shift will introduce secondary and tertiary challenges, especially in comprehending when, why, and how certain pieces of code were created." Toews draws a parallel with AI-powered data management tools like Glean, which help enterprises navigate vast amounts of data. Similarly, Unblocked is positioning itself to aid developers in managing the complexity of their evolving codebases. With this new funding, Unblocked plans to accelerate its product development and expand its user base. The company's innovative approach not only enhances productivity but also paves the way for more efficient collaboration among development teams.