The investment, one of the largest in Utah this year, will help further HeroDevs’ commitment to securing legacy software applications, ensuring enterprise technology infrastructure remains compliant and protected
HeroDevs will dedicate $20 million of capital towards the HeroDevs Open Source Sustainability Fund to support open source creators, maintainers, and projects that follow end-of-life best practices.
HeroDevs, a leading provider of security and compliance solutions for deprecated open source software (OSS), announced it has secured a $125 million strategic growth investment from PSG, a leading growth equity firm that specializes in partnering with software and technology-enabled services companies to capitalize on transformational growth. Existing investor Album also participated in the growth investment round.
Rapid AI adoption is accelerating the proliferation of OSS in enterprise security stacks — the average commercial codebase includes 911 open source components – and with this proliferation, 86% of those codebases contained OSS with known vulnerabilities, according to Black Duck. A separate report from Qualys found 48% of vulnerabilities stem from known vulnerabilities in OSS that are no longer supported or maintained.
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This investment will help HeroDevs secure enterprise security stacks against these threats by strengthening its Never-Ending Support solutions, which help provide seamless and secure replacements for vulnerable unsupported or outdated OSS versions. By enabling enterprises to protect their infrastructure without overhauling entire applications, HeroDevs helps protect against vulnerabilities that often lead to data breaches and cyberattacks, while giving teams the flexibility to plan secure software transitions on their own timeline.
“In our view, open source software runs the world. Through this investment, we’re doubling down on our mission of ensuring everyone—from developers to startups to enterprises and governments—has the tools and support to stay safe and compliant, even when they find themselves stuck running end-of-life open source software,” said Aaron Frost, Founder and CEO of HeroDevs. “We believe that the lifeline we provide to our customers saves them thousands of hours and hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention the loss in trust that comes from security breaches. Our team is proud to use this investment to solve two of the biggest challenges we face in the open source software community: funding the next generation of open source development and improving visibility around end-of-life security risks.”
“The acceleration of the adoption of open source software across enterprises highlights the growing demand for solutions that not only help companies meet strict security and compliance standards but also aim to preserve and strengthen the value of the broader open source ecosystem,” commented Marco Ferrari, Managing Director and Co-Head of North America, and Paul Russ, Principal, at PSG. “We believe the platform Aaron and the HeroDevs team have built empowers enterprises to secure vulnerable areas of software applications’ code without disrupting operations, while also fostering continued innovation across the open source community.”
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HeroDevs will also dedicate $20 million of capital towards its Open Source Sustainability Fund to support open source creators, maintainers, and projects that follow end-of-life best practices. The Open Source Sustainability Fund is officially open and accepting applications. Developers and projects can now apply for the donations, ranging from $2,500 to $250,000. To be accepted, applicants must demonstrate strong community adoption, commit to following security best practices when announcing and conducting end-of-life motions for versions of their software, and agree to the program’s requirements. To apply for funding and learn more about the program,
The Sustainability Fund builds on HeroDevs’ legacy of providing new funding models for the open source community. The company donates a portion of its revenue to open source creators and projects, including $4 million to date, and $2 million in 2024.
D.A. Davidson and Ampleo served as financial advisors to HeroDevs, and Foley & Lardner LLP served as legal advisor to HeroDevs. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal advisor to PSG.
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