Telstra’s (ASX:TLS) investment arm, Telstra Ventures, has bought up a stake in web-based Git-repository manager, Gitlab.
Gitlab, which operates an end-to-end DevOps platform, bills itself as “the first single application built from the ground up for all stages of the DevOps lifecycle”.
The software’s platform gives development, quality assurance, security and operations teams the ability to concurrently work on the same project within a single application and to see the entire workflow.
According to Gitlab, more than 100,000 organisations, from start-ups to global enterprises, including Ticketmaster, ING, NASDAQ, Alibaba, Sony and Intel, use its platform to deliver new software at speed.
The San Francisco-headquartered company’s co-founder and CEO, Sid Sijbrandij, said he looks forward to partnering with Telstra to support its large application team and to aid the company with its vision of “connecting people through technology”.
“DevOps is increasingly being adopted by organisations around the globe to radically improve productivity and the pace at which software moves from idea to market,” he said.
For Telstra Ventures managing director, Mark Sherman, the telco’s investment arm made the move to buy a stake in Gitlab because, in part, of its commitment to continuously improve its application – a factor that Sherman suggests is key to helping companies rapidly take their software and solutions from development to market.
“Customers are increasingly demanding better digital experiences, and DevOps is becoming the leading way for companies to develop, deliver and support applications that drive great customer experiences,” Sherman said.
The investment comes nearly three months after Telstra Ventures led a US$43 million Series D capital raising round for open networking software vendor, Cumulus Networks, bringing the company’s total funding to date to US$129 million.
The Californian tech company revealed on 23 January that the Telstra-led funding round had successfully closed, saying it will use the funds to “massively expand” its sales force and invest in growing its marketing programs.
In December last year, Telstra’s venture capital business completed a strategic investment in Ripcord, a robotic digitisation company which specialises in document management.
The telco said at the time it planned to roll out the solution to government and financial services customers across Australia.
