Virtually every application today relies on dozens of open-source components, making dependency management a nightmare for developers. Infield, a New York-based company, is launching a SaaS platform to address this challenge. The company has announced $3 million in seed funding and aims to bring open-source dependency management into the future by using human-assisted AI to analyze changelogs. This analysis provides developers with the data they need to confidently upgrade their dependencies, ultimately streamlining the process and reducing potential security risks.
Key Takeaway
Infield’s innovative approach to open-source dependency management, powered by human-assisted AI, aims to streamline the process of upgrading dependencies and reduce potential security risks for developers. The platform’s comprehensive scanning and risk assessment capabilities set it apart from traditional tools, offering a promising solution for efficient dependency management.
Founding of Infield
Infield was founded by Allison and Steve Pike, who met at SevenFifty, an alcohol e-commerce service. Both founders have diverse backgrounds, with Allison previously working in high-frequency trading and Steve as an analyst at BlackRock. The duo went through Y Combinator in 2019 to build Syndetic, a “Shopify for data sets.” However, by early 2022, they decided to pivot and combine their expertise in data pipelines and dependency management to launch Infield.
Revolutionizing Dependency Management
Infield’s platform promises to quickly scan all of a project’s dependencies and provide developers with a risk score based on the current version and the recommended target version. This allows developers to prioritize their upgrade backlogs and stay informed about potential issues. The system constantly scans data from changelogs and Github issues to look for problems, which is then augmented with its own database of incompatibilities. This approach sets Infield apart from similar tools, as it goes beyond security scanning and monitoring to provide a comprehensive solution for dependency management.
Community Collaboration and Future Plans
Allison emphasized the importance of consolidating data from the community to gain efficiency in managing dependencies. Infield currently supports Ruby, Javascript, Typescript, and Python, with plans to add support for Java in the near future. The company offers a basic free plan for individual users and more fully-featured team plans starting at $600 per month for up to 25 teams and support for up to 50 repos. Additionally, Infield continues to offer a white-glove upgrade service to businesses that require hands-on assistance.
