Background
Incident response is becoming increasingly challenging for companies due to the rise of remote work and growing system complexity. Rootly, a startup that aims to automate incident management and resolution, has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Renegade Partners.
The Need for Automation
JJ Tang, co-founder and CEO of Rootly, explained the challenges faced by companies in managing incidents. "Incident response teams are often physically dispersed, making communication more difficult," he said. "Growing system complexity with microservices and third-party services makes it impossible for a single engineer to know everything that’s going on."
Tang founded Rootly in 2021 with Quentin Rousseau, whom he met while working on Instacart’s product side for enterprise. During the pandemic, Instacart faced significant losses due to outages, highlighting the urgent need for a better way to manage incident response.
The Cost of Downtime
According to a report from BigPanda and Enterprise Management Associates, unplanned outage downtime can cost companies up to $12,900 per minute. This reflects not only the impact on employee activity but also business disruption.
How Rootly Automates Incident Response
Rootly attempts to automate much of incident management and resolution. The platform coordinates responders to work on an incident in Slack, suggests possible next steps, generates status updates, and even post-mortems to help users identify related incidents.
"While there are a lot of companies that sound the alarm, only Rootly automates putting out the fire," Tang said. "Most enterprises today have a fire-alarm equivalent for discovering incidents but are DIY for incident resolution – using paper checklists or relying on key staff with deep knowledge."
Competition in the Market
The incident response software market was estimated to be worth $29.21 billion in 2022, according to The Business Research Company. Rootly competes with FireHydrant and Blameless as well as Incident.io, which last year raised $28.7 million in VC cash.
Growing Success
Despite the competition, Rootly’s customer base is growing rapidly. The company counts Canva, Nvidia, and TripAdvisor among its clientele, with revenue increasing 400% in the past 12 months. Companies are using Rootly to manage over 60,000 incidents collectively each year, Tang claims.
"We launched during the pandemic and in an uncertain economy, and we’re still growing quickly," he added. "In this environment, companies want to do more with less, and Rootly helps with that. We address critical infrastructure – it’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must have."
Future Plans
Rootly has a 30-person team based in San Francisco and plans to expand to over 50 employees by the end of the year. The new funds will be put toward accelerating the company’s product roadmap, increasing its engineering presence, and investing in its sales and marketing organizations.
Conclusion
Rootly’s Series A funding round demonstrates the growing importance of incident response automation for companies. With a strong customer base and growing revenue, Rootly is well-positioned to address the challenges faced by companies in managing incidents.
Incident Response Market Overview
- Estimated market size: $29.21 billion (2022)
- Key players:
- FireHydrant
- Blameless
- Incident.io
- Rootly’s customer base: Canva, Nvidia, TripAdvisor
Rootly’s Product Features
- Coordination of responders to work on an incident in Slack
- Suggestion of possible next steps
- Generation of status updates and post-mortems
- Identification of related incidents
Challenges Faced by Companies in Managing Incidents
- Rise of remote work
- Growing system complexity with microservices and third-party services
Cost of Downtime
- Estimated cost: up to $12,900 per minute
- Impact on employee activity and business disruption
