Diffblue, a University of Oxford AI spin-out, raises $22 million in Series A funding

Diffblue, a world leader in AI for code, today announces that it has raised $22 million in Series A funding, one year after its spin-out from the University of Oxford. This round is led by Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments, alongside Oxford Sciences Innovations (OSI) and Oxford Technology and Innovations Fund (OTIF).

Founded by University of Oxford Computer Science Professor Daniel Kroening and Dr. Peter Schrammel, Diffblue develops AI for code. Daniel has brought together a team that includes some of the world’s leading experts in computer-aided verification and machine learning.

The company automates many traditional coding tasks: bug fixing, test writing, finding and fixing exploits, refactoring code, translating from one programing language to another, and creating original code to fit specifications. Diffblue’s core AI builds an exact mathematical model of any code base. This model allows a very deep semantic understanding of what a program is trying to do.

Diffblue are launching three products that are built on this core engine:  a testing product that automatically generates human-readable tests for an existing codebase; a security product that automatically discovers security holes and generates actual runnable exploits; and a refactoring product that automatically rewrites badly expressed or out of date code.

Daniel Kroening said, ‘Software is becoming increasingly complex, interdependent and vulnerable and it’s unrealistic to believe that humans can guarantee its safety and security. We believe that the suite of tools we are developing at Diffblue has immense potential to help address these issues. Studies show that coders spend up to 30% of their time writing tests. Automation will provide great returns both in terms of achieving much broader test coverage, and also freeing up significant developer time.’

Read the complete press release here: http://www.diffblue.com/press-release/