Linear Raises $82M at $1.25B Valuation, Challenging Atlassian with AI-Enhanced Developer Tools

Atlassian rival Linear raises $82M at $1.25B valuation | TechCrunch

Linear, an enterprise software maker that competes with many of Atlassian's products, on Tuesday announced that it raised $82 million in a Series C funding round led by Accel. The round, which also had participation from 01A, Sequoia, Seven Seven Six, and Designer Fund, values Linear at $1.25 billion and brings the company's total raised to $134.2 million, according to Crunchbase. Linear, based in San Francisco, builds products designed to help developers triage software bugs and feature requests, manage product development, and tap AI for coding assistance. The startup claims to have more than 15,000 customers, including OpenAI, Scale AI, and Perplexity, and it says that its profits grew 280% last year. CEO Karri Saarinen told Reuters that Linear's new funding will be put toward expanding the company's product portfolio and attracting larger enterprise clients. Linear currently has a team of around 80 people, many of whom work remotely.

Atlassian competitor Linear raises funding at $1.25-billion valuation

SAN FRANCISCO, June 10 (Reuters) - Enterprise software maker Linear has raised an $82 million Series C funding round valuing the startup at $1.25 billion, the company said on Tuesday. Venture capital fund Accel led the round, with participation from existing investors 01A and Sequoia, and new investors Seven Seven Six and Designer Fund. Linear, a maker of software development and project planning tools, competes with Atlassian's (TEAM.O), opens new tab project management tool Jira. Linear said its profits grew 280% last year, and it now has over 15,000 customers, including buzzy AI companies OpenAI, Scale AI and Perplexity. The 80-person, remote-first company will use its funding to build more products and attract larger enterprises to its customer base, said CEO Karri Saarinen. Linear focuses on specific product development use cases, a contrast to other tools that offer extensive customization but often overwhelm users, Saarinen said. For example, the company has specific functionalities around common software development workflows, such as a built-in "triage inbox" for software bugs and feature requests, and management for software development cycles, called sprints. It also has functionality for managing an AI like a team member, enabling humans and AIs to build software together effectively, something that is becoming common, Saarinen said. The company's commitment to customer-first product development over a technology-first approach is a focus that has been overlooked in the AI era, Linear investor Miles Clements, a partner at Accel, said. "There are a lot of vendors that are pushing a lot of unwanted AI slop into the market, and the Linear team instead is clued into what users are looking for and then providing them something they want," he said. Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco Editing by Rod Nickel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Business Anna Tong Thomson Reuters Anna Tong is a correspondent for Reuters based in San Francisco, where she reports on the technology industry. She joined Reuters in 2023 after working at the San Francisco Standard as a data editor. Tong previously worked at technology startups as a product manager and at Google where she worked in user insights and helped run a call center. Tong graduated from Harvard University.

Atlassian competitor Linear raises $82M to expand developer tools and target enterprise adoption - SiliconANGLE

Atlassian competitor Linear raises $82M to expand developer tools and target enterprise adoption Enterprise software maker Linear Orbit Inc., a competitor to Atlassian Corp., has reportedly raised $82 million in new funding to expand its product offering, including artificial intelligence-assisted bug triage and sprint tools and to go after larger enterprise customers. According to Reuters, the round was raised on a valuation of $1.25 billion. Founded in 2019, Linear offers an issue-tracking and project management platform for product and engineering teams. The platform offers a minimalist, keyboard-driven interface that prioritizes efficiency and clarity over complexity and is built with speed, elegance and developer-first workflows in mind. Linear's platform is designed to allow teams to manage their software development lifecycle through streamlined issue tracking, sprint planning via "Cycles" and structured long-term initiatives. The platform can be used in place of traditional project tools such as Atlassian's Jira and offers tight integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Figma and other services to reduce friction and boost productivity. A notable feature of Linear's platform is its Triage system, a feature that serves as an intelligent intake funnel for incoming issues and feature requests. The feature allows teams to route, prioritize and delegate tasks efficiently without overwhelming their backlogs. The platform also includes built-in analytics and progress tracking tools to give organizations visibility into team velocity, project milestones and bottlenecks. Linear has seen strong growth, with the company having more than 15,000 customers and saw its profit grow 280% last year. Notable Linear customers include OpenAI, Scale AI Inc., Perplexity AI Inc., Cursor Technologies Inc., CashApp, Monzo Bank Ltd. and Mercury Technologies Inc. The Series C round was reportedly led by Accel Partners LP, with existing investors 01A Advisors and Sequoia Capital Operations and new investors Seven Seven Six and Designer Fund also participating. "There are a lot of vendors that are pushing a lot of unwanted AI slop into the market and the Linear team instead is clued into what users are looking for and then providing them something they want," Miles Clements, a partner at Accel, told Reuters. The funding takes the amount raised by Linear to approximately $134.2 million, based on data from Tracxn.