GitLab的一体化DevOps赌注：GitHub归入微软之际，以11亿美元估值融资1亿美元

做的是什么生意

GitLab is an open-core code-hosting and DevOps platform, founded in 2014, that sells one application spanning source-code management, continuous integration, deployment and monitoring so organizations never stitch nine separate tools together.

启动资金：More than $145M total raised by September 2018: a $20M Series B in September 2016, a $20M Series C in October 2017, and the $100M Series D led by Iconiq Capital with GV and Khosla Ventures at a $1.1B valuation.

起因

GitLab was founded in 2014 and was perpetually compared to GitHub as a code-hosting repository. In September 2017, with GitLab 10.0, it declared a bigger mission — uniting development and operations in one user experience — and a year later it was still telling customers it could remove the burden of integrating nine separate tools. In June 2018 Microsoft announced plans to buy GitHub for $7.5B, weeks after GitLab said it was leaving Microsoft Azure for Google Cloud.

经过

On September 19, 2018, GitLab announced a $100M Series D led by Iconiq Capital, with existing investors GV and Khosla Ventures participating, at a $1.1B valuation — crossing into unicorn territory and taking total funding past $145M. CEO Sid Sijbrandij said the cash would let GitLab become best-in-class in every DevOps software category, while acknowledging that most users still thought of it as version control with a bit of continuous integration. Iconiq partner Matthew Jacobson framed GitLab as a leader taking the broad software development market head-on, and Sijbrandij reiterated GitLab's unusual public ambition to go public on November 18, 2020.

结果

As of September 19, 2018 the round had closed and GitLab had reached a $1.1B valuation with more than $145M raised, still independent and expanding from code hosting into the full DevOps loop; its self-declared IPO ambition of November 18, 2020 remained a target, not a fact.

可借鉴之处

当品类领导者被收购时，开放挑战者获得了融资窗口——但前提是它已经从模仿者重新定位为更广泛的平台故事。