Backtrace, a debugging startup led by former AppNexus engineers, raises $5M

Backtrace, a debugging startup led by former AppNexus engineers, raises $5M. Debugging startup Backtrace I/O was launched to solve a real problem that its founders faced when they were engineers at adtech company AppNexus — at least according to Backtrace CEO and co-founder Abel Mathew. Mathew told me Backtrace aims to “solve the process of debugging,” something that most companies tackle by “cobbling together very old, outdated solutions” or by building their own tools. “That’s part of the reason why developers spend 50 percent of their time debugging,” he said. “It’s a huge cost to the industry … That cost is significantly felt when you have developers not using the right solutions.” The company is announcing that it has raised $5 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $6.1 million. The round was led by Amplify Partners, with participation from Work-Bench and previous investors Rally Ventures and Tribeca Venture Partners. Amplify’s Sunil Dhaliwal is joining Backtrace’s board of directors. “Software won’t eat the world if engineers are held back by debugging technology conceived during the Cold War,” Dhaliwal said in the funding release. … We allow you to explore that data at scale efficiently.” Customers include Mathew’s old employer AppNexus, as well as MediaMath, Circonus and Fastly. But it could be used by anyone building software.