Harness acquires Split Software to enhance feature management

Harness, a notable platform for end-to-end software delivery, has announced its acquisition of Split Software, a significant player in the feature flag and experimentation domain. This strategic move follows Harness's recent funding round and aims to enhance the company’s capabilities in the rapidly evolving software delivery market.

Split Software secured a total of US$110 million in its last funding round, a Series D in 2021. Feature flagging has become essential for companies striving to remain competitive. The ability to quickly iterate and reduce time-to-market for new features is increasingly crucial. Modern enterprises are continuously updating and releasing software to meet user demands and stay ahead in the digital landscape.

Harness’s decision to acquire Split is driven by the need for robust feature management and experimentation capabilities. These functionalities allow development teams to push updates confidently, respond swiftly to feedback, and address unexpected issues or outages effectively. Split’s mature, enterprise-scale platform supports scalable software testing and releases, aligning perfectly with Harness’s mission.

Jyoti Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Harness, commented on the acquisition, stating, "We’ve seen immense market demand from our customers for an advanced feature management solution. We’re doubling down on our Feature Management and Experimentation investment with our acquisition of Split. These critical capabilities add another robust capability to our platform, supporting the shift towards faster software delivery and adding value across the entire Software Development Lifecycle."

Brian Bell, CEO of Split, echoed these sentiments, highlighting the synergy between the two companies. "The moment of feature release is a critical touchpoint between the developer and user. Our mission at Split has been to give development teams the confidence to accelerate with control and the freedom to innovate with ease. To further this mission, I couldn’t think of a better partner than Harness. Harness is automating and integrating every stage of software development," said Bell. "Together, we will have the most comprehensive software delivery platform on the market."

With Split under its umbrella, Harness plans to offer an integrated feature management and experimentation solution. This new offering aims to enable customers to build, deploy, and release software efficiently while conducting A/B tests to measure feature adoption. Integrating Split’s capabilities with Harness’s AI technology, AIDATM, promises to deliver intelligent features that help developers ship with confidence.

Kevin Long, Vice President of Engineering at ClickUp, expressed enthusiasm for the acquisition. "We are incredibly excited to see Split join the Harness Platform. Modern software delivery requires complex techniques like GitOps and experimentation, and now both of these capabilities will be available as a part of a single seamlessly integrated platform. As a long-time customer of both companies, we look forward to the next generation of DevOps platform innovation as they continue to deliver cutting edge solutions to the market," said Long.

Harness’s mission remains to revolutionise software development and deployment, ensuring that teams can deliver code quickly, reliably, efficiently, and securely. The acquisition of Split reaffirms this commitment, bolstering Harness’s comprehensive software delivery platform to drive innovation and enhance developer productivity.

Legal counsel for the acquisition comprised Cooley advising Harness in the U.S., with DLA Piper Argentina providing legal advice in Argentina. Moelis & Company was the exclusive financial advisor, and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian acted as legal counsel for Split Software.