Early Raises $5M to Automate Code Testing with Generative AI

Early automates code testing for developers | TechCrunch

Early is a Tel Aviv-based startup that uses generative AI to generate unit tests, helping programmers catch potential bugs early in the development cycle. The company, which launched in August, today announced that it has raised a $5 million seed funding round led by Zeev Ventures, with participation from Dynamic Loop Capital. In its current form, Early supports JavaScript and TypeScript and integrates with the Visual Studio Code IDE. From there, developers can quickly see how much of their code is covered by tests and then automatically generate validated tests right from within the IDE. Those tests, the company says, include mocks and aim to cover a wide variety of scenarios like happy paths and edge cases, which developers would otherwise have to code by hand. While its focus right now is on helping developers create unit tests, Early CEO and co-founder Sharon Barr tells me that the overall mission is significantly broader. In an interview ahead of today's announcement, Barr stressed that he doesn't think of Early as a testing company. "I like to call us a code quality company," he said. Code quality is something Barr surely knows about. Before founding Early, he was the VP of Engineering for Couchbase from 2010 to 2013 and then became the CTO of biotech company Bina. Bina was later acquired by Roche, where Barr held the role of VP of Software Engineering until 2018. He then joined EYGlobal, where he held a number of executive roles, reporting directly to the CTO. His co-founder and CTO, Lior Froimovich, was an engineering lead at EY Global -- a role Barr hired him for -- and before that, he co-founded two startups. "A year ago, I left EY together with my co-founder, Lior, whom I hired six years ago, and we said, 'Okay, let's see what we can do with this new, exciting technology of GenAI -- and one of the problem that we faced ourselves on our career is code quality," Barr told me. "And then we said, 'Okay, let's start with testing.' Let's see if you can generate code for testing -- and in the world of testing, let's start with unit tests. We experimented with it. We ended up raising money very quickly from Zeev Ventures, much faster than we expected, and have focused on the product since then." Barr, like most of the AI startup founders I talk to these days, does not believe that AI and AI agents will replace humans anytime soon. But he does believe that a service like Early can free developers to focus on the more creative parts of coding. "The Early team's deep understanding of both AI's potential and the nuances of software development puts them at the forefront of this revolution," said Oren Zeev, founder of Zeev Ventures. "They're not just using AI; they're applying it strategically to solve one of the most persistent and costly challenges in coding. I believe Early will become an indispensable tool for developers, dramatically reducing the time and cost associated with bug detection and fixing, and ultimately accelerating innovation across the tech industry."

Generative AI code testing startup Early bags $5M to catch software bugs before they cause havoc - SiliconANGLE

Generative AI code testing startup Early bags $5M to catch software bugs before they cause havoc Generative artificial intelligence code quality startup Early Technologies Ltd. announced the availability of its VSCode extension today after closing on $5 million in seed funding. Today's round was led by Zeev Ventures and saw participation from Dynamic Loop Capital. The funds will help to accelerate the development of Early's AI-powered Test AI agent, which is designed to automatically generate high quality tests of code, so developers can easily detect and fix any bugs in their software. Using the company's Test AI agent, developers can detect bugs at the very start of the software development cycle, the startup explains. It leverages generative AI to quickly analyze each new line of code written by the developer, in order to generate an appropriate unit test, which is then applied to the code to see if any bugs or vulnerabilities are present. Early says its extension integrates with popular development tools such as Visual Studio Code and supports programming languages such as JavaScript, TypeScript and Jest. Developers can generate tests with a single click without leaving their coding environment, review the generated tests, see the results, fix any bugs it discovers and even see gaps in the test's coverage. To ensure the accuracy of its tests, Early uses a process known as "mutation testing," which involves making small, intentional changes, or mutations, in the code to create a bug, and then verify that the test is able to catch it. If it does, then the test should theoretically also be able to catch unintentional issues within the developer's code. Early says it generates two kinds of tests. Green tests are designed to enhance coverage, while red tests are for identifying potential bugs within the code. The company believes it can save organizations a lot of money by spotting vulnerabilities early through its automated tests. It cites a 2022 report by the Consortium for Information & Software Quality, which estimated that the cost of poor-quality software in the U.S. alone had grown to more than $2.41 trillion, thanks to the downtime and cyberattacks that result from it. Early stresses the importance of being able to catch bugs as soon as possible. It points out that the impact of deficiencies in software escalates dramatically when they are discovered much later on in the development cycle, especially if they're only found after the software has been released. A case in point is the recent global information technology outage caused by CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., when it rolled out a faulty update to its popular Falcon cybersecurity software, causing millions of Windows-based systems to crash, disrupting the operations of hospitals, government agencies, airlines and numerous businesses worldwide. According to Early, the CrowdStrike debacle was caused by a relatively simple "out-of-bounds exception" that could have been easily detected by one of its tests. Yet it slipped through the net, resulting in billions of dollars in losses. The incident highlights the critical need for improved code quality, the startup said. Early's co-founder and Chief Executive Sharon Barr (pictured, left, alongside co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Lior Froimavich) said a lot of effort has been made in using generative AI technology to develop software code, but much less focus on the task of test generation for that code. "We're acting as an AI test engineer that works right alongside every developer," he said. "Our goal is simple: We take care of the tests so developers can focus on what they do best. By catching bugs at the earliest stages of development, we aim to save companies billions in losses." More than 3,000 developers have already began using Early's VSCode extension since its soft launch in August, and it has generated more than 30,000 unit tests already, the company said. Zeev Ventures founder Oren Zeev said he's backing Early because it's taking on a critical challenge in trying to improve code quality. "Early is not just using AI, but applying it strategically to solve one of the most persistent and costly challenges in coding," he said. "I believe it will become an indispensable tool for developers."