Port secures $100 million in funding, reaching an $800 million valuation, to compete with Spotify’s Backstage

Port Emerges as a Major Player in Developer Portals and AI Agent Management

While Spotify is best known for its music streaming platform, it also maintains a highly successful open-source project called Backstage. This tool enables organizations to create customized internal developer portals, offering a centralized hub for their development resources, visual progress tracking, and key performance metrics. However, as with many open-source solutions, Backstage requires significant hands-on setup and maintenance.

Recently, Israeli startup Port has attracted prominent clients such as GitHub, British Telecom, and LG with its proprietary alternative to Backstage. Port’s platform not only serves as a developer tool portal but has also evolved to support the management of AI agents.

Founded in 2022, Port announced on Thursday that it has secured a $100 million Series C investment led by General Atlantic, with additional backing from Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Team8. This latest round brings Port’s valuation to $800 million and increases its total funding to $158 million, following a $35 million Series B earlier this year.

AI Agents and the Changing Landscape of Software Development

Among the many sectors transformed by large language model (LLM) technology, software development stands out as a primary area of impact. Developers are increasingly leveraging AI agents to automate complex, repetitive workflows—far beyond simply generating code snippets.

However, as Port’s co-founder and CEO Zohar Einy points out, the current environment for these developer tool agents is chaotic. Companies struggle to locate, share, and standardize the use of these agents, making it difficult to ensure compliance with organizational policies.

“Developers want AI to do more than just write code—they want it to handle incident resolution, address security concerns, and manage software releases,” Einy shared with TechCrunch.

Yet, when agents are dispersed across various platforms and data sources without unified standards or collaboration tools, the result is organizational disorder and inefficiency.

Port’s Solution: Orchestration, Oversight, and Contextual Intelligence

Port’s offering extends beyond a simple directory of developer and AI agent tools. The platform introduces orchestration features that monitor agent performance and allow for human oversight in approval workflows.

One standout capability, called the “context lake,” enables organizations to define the data sources, contextual memory, and operational boundaries for their agents. According to Einy, this feature ensures agents have access to the information they need to operate safely and effectively.

Developers can use Port to catalog agents built with other tools, create new agents within the platform, or deploy Port’s own pre-built agents for tasks like helpdesk ticket resolution and resource provisioning.

Einy emphasizes that Port addresses the vast majority of a developer’s responsibilities that fall outside of coding itself. “It provides engineers with an interface to interact with, manage, and approve agent-driven tasks that make up the other 90% of their work,” he explained.

A Crowded Field of Competitors

With substantial new funding, a roster of high-profile clients, and backing from leading venture capital firms, Port is positioning itself as a key contender in the agent management space. However, competition is fierce, with numerous startups and established tech companies tackling the challenges of agent orchestration from different perspectives. Notable players in this arena include LangChain, UiPath, Cortex, and others.