Scarf
Scarf is an AI-augmented open source intelligence platform that tracks billions of OSS downloads and hundreds of millions of end users, delivering usage analytics, ABM lead signals, and security context to OSS maintainers, B2B sales and marketing teams, and security organizations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersOakland, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Scarf does
Scarf Systems, Inc., founded in 2019 and headquartered in Oakland, California, operates an AI-augmented open source intelligence platform that instruments how agents and humans find, install, and depend on OSS packages, containers, documentation, and binaries. The platform tracks approximately 2 billion daily OSS downloads, 308 million unique end users, and 3.3 million companies, covering 96% of the Fortune 500, and turns these usage signals into GTM intelligence, security context, and developer-relations workflow inputs without storing personally identifiable information. The product portfolio centers on the Scarf Platform and an "Scarf AI" analyst agent for natural-language querying and autonomous workflows, with solution modules targeting sales leaders (OQL identification and ABM), marketing teams, security teams via Dependency Radar (OSS consumption monitoring), and OSS project ROI measurement, complemented by a Go SDK released in October 2025 for embedding into agent and application workflows.
The company's technology is built around proprietary instrumentation embedded into OSS distribution pipelines (the "Scarf Gateway"), enabling visibility that container registries and package managers do not publicly share, including version adoption, component deployment, and organization-level usage from first touch through production. Scarf AI exposes natural-language investigation, agentic workflow construction, and a recommendation engine that surfaces qualification signals for sales, marketing, RevOps, and DevRel teams; the platform integrates natively with Slack, Claude Code, and OpenClaw, and offers REST APIs for custom data export and workflow automation. The company holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification and is an Approved External Service Provider of the Apache Software Foundation.
Scarf generates revenue through a SaaS subscription model with monthly billing, offered via self-serve sign-up at app.scarf.sh with pricing not publicly disclosed. GTM combines product-led self-serve for individuals and startups with an account-based motion driven by OSS usage signals targeting sales, marketing, RevOps, DevRel, and security buyers. A diverse base of more than 20 publicly named customers spans open source maintainers (Buoyant for Linkerd, Heroic Labs, Cal.com, Budibase, Redpanda, Diagrid), enterprises (Sysdig, DataStax, Astronomer, Chronosphere, Liquibase, InfluxData), and academic institutions (Carnegie Mellon). Disclosed funding totals approximately $7.3M across a 2020 seed round and a December 2021 $5.3M round led by Race Capital with Freestyle Capital, with no subsequent priced round disclosed.
Scarf firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Scarf
- Legal name
- Scarf Systems, Inc.
- Website
- https://scarf.sh
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Scarf is an AI-augmented open source intelligence platform that tracks billions of OSS downloads and hundreds of millions of end users, delivering usage analytics, ABM lead signals, and security context to OSS maintainers, B2B sales and marketing teams, and security organizations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Scarf is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Oakland
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Scarf business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Platform Subscription: Scarf operates as a SaaS platform tracking OSS downloads and providing intelligence services. The platform offers tiered access to tracking features, AI analytics, and workflow integrations. Revenue is generated through subscription-based access to the platform with various usage tiers.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Platform access with sign-up |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Scarf product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Scarf is a SaaS platform that tracks how agents and humans find, install, and depend on open source software, capturing package activity across downloads, containers, docs, and binaries. It converts these usage signals into go-to-market intelligence, security context, and AI-native workflows for sales, marketing, RevOps, DevRel, and security teams. The platform also offers an AI analyst agent (Scarf AI) for natural language queries and agentic workflows over OSS data.
Product overview
Scarf is an open source intelligence platform designed for the agentic era. The core Scarf Platform tracks how agents and humans find, install, and depend on open source software, turning usage signals into GTM intelligence, security context, and workflows. The platform is augmented by Scarf AI, an AI-powered analyst agent that enables natural language querying and autonomous workflows. Additional solution modules include Scarf for Sales Leaders (account qualification and OQL identification), Scarf for Marketing Teams (GTM signal workflows), Dependency Radar (security monitoring for OSS consumption), and Open Source Project ROI (project value measurement). The portfolio also includes a Go SDK for developer integrations.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Dependency Radar: Open source dependency monitoring and security intelligence product
- Scarf for Sales Leaders
- Scarf for Marketing Teams
- Open Source Project ROI
Products and services
- Scarf Platform The core Scarf platform that tracks open source package activity, downloads, containers, docs, and binaries and turns the resulting usage signals into GTM intelligence, security context, and workflows across the AI stack.
- Scarf for Sales Leaders Solution module that surfaces accounts, qualification signals, and adoption patterns for sales teams, enabling identification of Open Source Qualified Leads (OQLs) for account-based marketing.
- Scarf for Marketing Teams Solution module enabling marketing teams to turn GTM signals from open source usage into workflows and surface adoption patterns for RevOps and DevRel teams.
- Dependency Radar Security-focused module that monitors open source consumption across an organization, tracking what teams and workloads are downloading to help security teams investigate risky or unexpected open source usage.
- Open Source Project ROI Solution module for measuring and demonstrating the return on investment of open source projects, helping teams understand and communicate the value of their OSS contributions.
Quantifiable outcome
- 2x higher response rates for outbound outreach to Open Source Qualified Leads compared to campaigns without Scarf data
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Scarf
Customer profileNamed customers22 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Scarf technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability4 records
Feature4 records
Scarf partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)coreCloud Native Computing Foundation is listed as a partnering organization in the open source community section. CNCF is a major foundation supporting cloud-native technologies and Kubernetes ecosystem. Scarf's positioning aligns with CNCF projects and their shared community.
- The Linux FoundationcoreThe Linux Foundation is listed as a partnering organization. The Linux Foundation hosts and supports critical open source projects. Scarf's OSS intelligence services align with Linux Foundation ecosystem.
- Apache Software FoundationcoreScarf is an Approved External Service Provider of the Apache Software Foundation. This is a formal designation indicating a vetted, approved relationship for providing services to Apache projects and their communities.
- Haskell FoundationminorHaskell Foundation is listed as a partnering organization. Supports the Haskell programming language ecosystem.
- MariaDB FoundationminorMariaDB Foundation is listed as a partnering organization. Supports the MariaDB open source database ecosystem.
- OWASPminorOWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) is listed as a partnering organization. OWASP focuses on application security, relevant to Scarf's OSS security monitoring capabilities.
- Commonhaus FoundationminorCommonhaus Foundation is listed as a partnering organization. Provides support for open source projects through shared infrastructure and governance.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Scarf competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- New Relic:
- GitHub (Microsoft): GitHub already controls package, container, and Copilot telemetry across a vast share of OSS projects; its Insights, Dependabot, and Advanced Security products are the most credible incumbent threat to Scarf's usage intelligence wedge.
- Datadog: Datadog is a broad observability and cloud monitoring platform whose APM and log analytics touch similar developer and SRE buyer personas; it could expand into OSS usage telemetry as an adjacent product, posing a bundling threat to Scarf.
Direct peers
- Sonatype: Sonatype operates Nexus Intelligence and OSS governance tooling that tracks open source component usage, license risk, and security across enterprises — directly overlapping Scarf's OSS usage intelligence and Dependency Radar use cases.
- Mend (formerly WhiteSource): Mend provides open source security and license compliance tooling with a focus on dependency detection and remediation — directly comparable to Scarf's enterprise OSS monitoring surface.
- Snyk: Snyk provides developer security including software composition analysis and open source dependency monitoring, competing for the same security-team budget Scarf targets with its Dependency Radar module.
- FOSSA: FOSSA offers open source license compliance and security scanning, overlapping Scarf's usage intelligence and OSS consumption monitoring capabilities for enterprise engineering and legal teams.
Market position
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Scarf social profiles
Digital presenceScarf compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Scarf financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Scarf leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Scarf funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Scarf 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 Scarf
What does Scarf do?
Scarf is a SaaS platform that tracks how agents and humans find, install, and depend on open source software, capturing package activity across downloads, containers, docs, and binaries. It converts these usage signals into go-to-market intelligence, security context, and AI-native workflows for sales, marketing, RevOps, DevRel, and security teams. The platform also offers an AI analyst agent (Scarf AI) for natural language queries and agentic workflows over OSS data.
Is Scarf a public or private company?
Scarf is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Scarf founded?
Scarf was founded in 2019. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Scarf based?
Scarf is headquartered in Oakland, United States, in the North America region.
How does Scarf make money?
One revenue line is on record: platform Subscription.
Who are Scarf's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are New Relic, GitHub (Microsoft) and Datadog. Direct peers are Sonatype, Mend (formerly WhiteSource), Snyk and FOSSA.
Does Scarf have an API?
Yes. Scarf offers APIs for custom workflows and integrations, enabling users to get data automatically and build automated workflows. Data export capabilities are available through the API. Documentation is available at docs.scarf.sh/data-export/. Developer documentation is at docs.scarf.sh/data-export.