OpsLevel Secures $5M Seed Funding to Reinvent DevOps Service Ownership
The Problem with Modern DevOps
The term “DevOps” has lost much of its original meaning, leaving developers without the proper tools to implement its core principles effectively. That’s the bold claim from OpsLevel, a DevOps startup founded by John Laban and Kenneth Rose, two early PagerDuty employees. The company recently announced a $5 million seed funding round led by Vertex Ventures, with participation from S28 Capital, Webb Investment Network, Union Capital, and notable angels including PagerDuty’s co-founders.
From Reactive to Proactive DevOps
“PagerDuty played a crucial role in the DevOps movement by getting engineers on-call,” explained Laban. “But incident response is inherently reactive. We saw an opportunity to help companies adopt a more proactive approach - preventing downtime and security breaches before they occur.”
The Service Ownership Challenge
At its core, OpsLevel addresses a critical gap in modern DevOps implementations:
- Microservices complexity: As companies adopt microservices or serverless architectures, service ownership becomes unclear
- Orphaned services: Result in security vulnerabilities and reliability issues
- Duplication of effort: Teams unknowingly rebuild existing solutions
“We’ve underinvested in tools to make DevOps actually work,” the founders state. “Engineering teams need better solutions to adopt true service ownership and unlock DevOps’ full potential.”
The OpsLevel Solution
OpsLevel’s platform focuses on three key areas:
- Service Catalog: Centralized inventory of all engineering services
- Ownership Framework: Clear accountability through “you build it, you own it” culture
- Integration Flexibility: Supports both config-as-code (YAML/Git) and API-based workflows
Image Credits: OpsLevel
Early Traction and Future Plans
The startup already counts Segment, Zapier, Convoy, and Under Armour among its customers. The platform becomes particularly valuable when companies manage 20-30 services, as traditional methods like wikis or spreadsheets begin to fail.
Image Credits: OpsLevel
“We’re reclaiming the meaning of DevOps,” Laban emphasized. “Our focus is on service ownership, and we’re investing heavily in product development and customer success to solve this fundamental challenge.”
Funding and Growth
The seed round closed in late September 2020, with the pandemic having minimal impact on fundraising efforts. The capital will accelerate product development and go-to-market strategies.
“Customer traction motivated this raise,” Laban noted. “We’re doubling down on product innovation and team expansion to meet growing market demand.”
