Blacksmith
Blacksmith provides high-performance CI/CD infrastructure as a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions runners, using bare metal gaming CPUs and NVMe caching to deliver faster, cheaper compute for software engineering teams across SaaS, AI/ML, and open source projects.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2024
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Blacksmith does
Blacksmith is a San Francisco-based provider of high-performance continuous integration (CI) infrastructure that operates as a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions runners. Founded in 2024, the company delivers CI compute on bare metal gaming CPUs selected for highest single-core performance, paired with NVMe-backed persistent Docker layer caching and co-located cache artifacts, claiming 2x faster runners, 4x faster cache downloads, and 40x faster Docker builds versus standard GitHub-hosted runners. The platform is sold via usage-based per-minute billing at approximately 60% of GitHub-hosted runner pricing, with a 3,000-minute free tier and self-serve onboarding via GitHub OAuth. Blacksmith serves software engineering teams—predominantly SaaS companies alongside AI/ML and open source projects—with named customers including Vercel, Clerk, Ashby, Veed, Supabase, Mercury, Expensify, Plex, Gitbook, Chroma, and Mintlify, and reports processing over 50 million jobs monthly across more than 3,000 organizations.
The product surface extends beyond raw compute: Blacksmith 2.0 includes an observability dashboard with run history search, global log search, SSH debugging, test analytics, and CI analytics; a Migration Wizard that automates runner label switching; Testboxes (beta) for interactive debugging; Git Checkout Caching; Container Caching; and PR commenting for failed tests. The company is SOC 2 Type II certified, runs multi-region infrastructure across us-west, eu-central, eu-west, and us-central with GDPR-localized EU/UK representation, and has announced forthcoming GPU runners for AI workloads and a Sandboxes product for isolated development environments. Blacksmith is venture-backed with $13.5 million raised across pre-seed, seed (May 2025), and Series A (September 2025), both led by GV with Y Combinator participation; it reports $3.5 million in ARR as of September 2025 with a stated objective to double revenue by year-end, supported by a leadership team of three co-founders (Aayush Shah, Aditya Maru as co-CTOs and Aditya Jayaprakash as CEO) and a recently hired VP of Sales signaling the start of an enterprise GTM motion on top of its product-led developer acquisition.
Blacksmith firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Blacksmith
- Legal name
- Blacksmith Software Inc.
- Website
- https://blacksmith.sh
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2024
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Blacksmith provides high-performance CI/CD infrastructure as a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions runners, using bare metal gaming CPUs and NVMe caching to deliver faster, cheaper compute for software engineering teams across SaaS, AI/ML, and open source projects.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Blacksmith industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Continuous Integration Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Managed DevOps / Platform Operations (Run & Operate) (BPAEAKAO)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Bare Metal Provisioning & Lifecycle Automation (HDABADAJ), Digital Experience Monitoring & Management (DEX/DEM, AIOps for EUC) (BPAEAIAF)
Keywords
Where Blacksmith is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Blacksmith business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- CI Compute Minutes: Usage-based billing model where customers pay per minute of CI execution on Blacksmith runners. Pricing is 60% less than GitHub-hosted runners with 75% compute cost reduction. Includes free tier of 3,000 minutes per month.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Monthly | Free tier with 3,000 minutes per month for new users |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Usage-based paid tier with per-minute billing |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Blacksmith product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Blacksmith operates a high-performance CI cloud platform that serves as a drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted Actions runners. The platform runs jobs on bare metal gaming CPUs with persistent NVMe-backed caching for Docker layers and co-located dependency caches, sold on a per-minute usage basis with a free tier of 3,000 minutes per month and enterprise invoice billing. It includes an observability dashboard for run history, log search, SSH debugging, test analytics, and CI analytics, plus migration tooling that generates runner-tag Pull Requests for seamless adoption.
Product overview
Blacksmith is a high-performance CI cloud platform that operates as a drop-in replacement for GitHub Actions runners. The core product consists of the Blacksmith CI Cloud Platform with Blacksmith 2.0 Observability Dashboard, backed by bare metal gaming CPU runners and NVMe-based caching infrastructure. The platform offers multiple optimization modules including Docker Layer Caching (40x faster builds), Git Checkout Caching, Container Caching, and the Migration Wizard for seamless migration. Additional features include Testboxes for debugging and upcoming GPU runners and Sandboxes. The company targets AI and AI-driven development teams seeking faster CI with reduced costs.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Blacksmith CI Cloud Platform High-performance continuous integration cloud platform that serves as a drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted runners, offering 2x faster build times and up to 75% compute cost savings for software development teams running GitHub Actions workflows.
- Blacksmith 2.0 Observability Dashboard Comprehensive CI observability suite that fills GitHub Actions visibility gaps with run history search, global log search, SSH access for debugging, test analytics, and CI analytics for monitoring CI pipeline performance and costs.
- Blacksmith Runners Bare metal gaming CPUs with the highest single-core performance available for Linux, Windows, and macOS workloads, delivering 2x faster CI execution compared to GitHub-hosted runners.
Quantifiable outcome
- 2x faster CI speed vs GitHub-hosted runners
- +9 more outcomes
Companies that use Blacksmith
Customer profileNamed customers13 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Blacksmith technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability4 records
Feature8 records
Blacksmith partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- GitHubcoreGitHub OAuth integration allows users to sign in and connect their GitHub organizations. Blacksmith runs as a drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted runners, fully compatible with GitHub Actions workflows and syntax.
- StripecoreStripe processes all payments for Blacksmith's usage-based billing, handling credit card transactions for monthly billing based on customer usage. Customers can add credit cards during account setup or request invoice-based billing for enterprise contracts.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Blacksmith competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- GitHub Actions: The incumbent CI platform whose runners Blacksmith replaces; controls the underlying Actions specification, marketplace, and OAuth flow that Blacksmith depends on. Largest scale and default distribution make it the primary competitive reference point for performance and pricing.
- GitLab CI: Integrated DevOps platform with its own CI runners that competes on broader repo-to-deploy workflows rather than raw CI speed. Serves as a bundled alternative for organizations already standardizing on GitLab's platform.
- AWS CodeBuild: Hyperscaler-managed CI service with deep AWS compute and IAM integration. Targets enterprise and cloud-native teams already on AWS; overlaps with Blacksmith on managed runners but with broader platform bundling and pricing power.
- Google Cloud Build: Google's managed CI offering tied to GCP and Firebase ecosystems. Provides similar developer-experience positioning and bare-metal-equivalent Google custom silicon options, making it a comparable broad incumbent.
- Azure DevOps Pipelines: Microsoft's enterprise-oriented CI/CD service with deep integration into the Azure and Microsoft developer ecosystem. Competes for enterprise budgets via bundling, and serves as a comparable hyperscaler-anchored incumbent.
Direct peers
- CircleCI: Hosted CI/CD platform serving developers and engineering teams with usage-based compute minutes. Competes directly with Blacksmith for engineering orgs prioritizing developer velocity and CI speed, especially in startup and mid-market SaaS.
- Buildkite: Hybrid CI platform combining hosted orchestration with self-hosted agents. Targets similar developer-led procurement motions and offers comparable speed/reliability claims; directly competes for engineering teams seeking faster CI alternatives.
- Drone.io: Container-native CI/CD platform with self-hosted and cloud runners. Targets developer teams with Docker-based workflows, overlapping with Blacksmith's Docker layer caching value proposition and customer base of cloud-native engineering orgs.
- Travis CI: Legacy hosted CI service targeting open source and SaaS teams with usage-based pricing. Competed historically with GitHub Actions and remains a comparable hosted-CI alternative for teams evaluating drop-in CI replacements.
Emerging players
- Depot: Startup focused on dramatically faster Docker builds via remote build caches and optimized compute, closely mirroring Blacksmith's core pitch around Docker build speed and developer experience. Most directly comparable emerging peer by product surface and positioning.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Blacksmith social profiles
Digital presenceBlacksmith compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Blacksmith financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Blacksmith leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Blacksmith funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors4 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Blacksmith M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Blacksmith
What does Blacksmith do?
Blacksmith operates a high-performance CI cloud platform that serves as a drop-in replacement for GitHub-hosted Actions runners. The platform runs jobs on bare metal gaming CPUs with persistent NVMe-backed caching for Docker layers and co-located dependency caches, sold on a per-minute usage basis with a free tier of 3,000 minutes per month and enterprise invoice billing. It includes an observability dashboard for run history, log search, SSH debugging, test analytics, and CI analytics, plus migration tooling that generates runner-tag Pull Requests for seamless adoption.
Is Blacksmith a public or private company?
Blacksmith is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Blacksmith founded?
Blacksmith was founded in 2024. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Blacksmith based?
Blacksmith is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Blacksmith make money?
One revenue line is on record: CI Compute Minutes.
Who are Blacksmith's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, AWS CodeBuild, Google Cloud Build and Azure DevOps Pipelines. Direct peers are CircleCI, Buildkite, Drone.io and Travis CI. Depot is listed as an emerging player.
Does Blacksmith have an API?
Yes. Blacksmith provides a public API at status.blacksmith.sh for fetching system status information. The API offers endpoints to retrieve overall status summaries and component-level status data, accessible via GET requests to /v3/summary.json and /v3/components.json endpoints. No SDK or client library documentation found for external developers. Developer documentation is at status.blacksmith.sh/en-us/public-api.
What industry is Blacksmith in?
Blacksmith's product category is Continuous Integration Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAKAO, Managed DevOps / Platform Operations (Run & Operate), with a secondary code of HDABADAJ, Bare Metal Provisioning & Lifecycle Automation. Its NAICS code is 51821 and its SIC code is 7371.