Github, a web based Git repository hosting service, has raised Series B funding worth $250 million led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, reports TechCrunch. The company will use the funds for international expansion, investing in new products and adding to its sales and engineering teams, along with “taking larger risks and thinking bigger”.
In 2012, Github had raised Series A funding worth $100 million from VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, before which it had reportedly bootstrapped to being a profitable company. Github was founded by Tom Preston-Werner (who left in 2014), Chris Wanstrath, and PJ Hyett in 2008. The TC report states that around 70% of Github’s users are outside of the US. GitHub claims to have 10 million registered users and over 25 million projects as of now. The company has over 300 employees and claims to have 33 million users monthly.
Github is a coding platform where software developers display projects to which other developers can contribute to. It uses monthly subscriptions to store programming source code in cloud data centres, but also has a free service. The platform is popular among open source enthusiasts and corporate software projects alike. Github’s paid service costs $7 per month, while organisations are charged $25-$200 per month.
Earlier last month, the company opened an office in Tokyo, Japan, its first outside of the US. It also tied with Macnica Networks to sell its SaaS subscription to Japanese corporate and technology companies.
Previous Github block in India: Earlier this year, the department of telecommunications initiated action to unblock four websites (Weebly, Dailymotion, Vimeo and GithubGist) after they said that they would not allow posting of Jihadi propaganda. The government had ordered to block 32 websites for allegedly posting pro-ISIS messages on them.
The DoT invoked Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and said that “the compliance be submitted immediately, failing which the Department may initiate action under Rule 12 of the Information Technology Rules 2009 (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public).”
Image Credit: Flickr user Bruce Williams
