Ethiopian Founder's Better Auth Raises $5M Seed Funding for Revolutionary Authentication Tool

Ethiopian self-taught programmer, Bereket Engida, is making waves in the developer community with his startup, Better Auth. The company offers an open-source framework that simplifies user authentication for developers.

Recently, Better Auth secured $5 million in seed funding from investors including Peak XV, Y Combinator, P1 Ventures, and Chapter One. What's striking about Engida's success is that he built the entire product in Ethiopia before going to the U.S. Engida's journey began when he started programming at 18 and noticed the recurring issue of authentication in different software applications. This led him to develop a TypeScript-based authentication framework that allows developers to access user data via open-source libraries, support common permissions use cases out of the box, and scale with plug-ins. The library, since its launch on GitHub in September 2024, has gained significant traction, with over 150,000 weekly downloads, 15,000 GitHub stars, and a community of over 6,000 Discord members.

Better Auth stands out as it enables developers to implement authentication directly on their databases, maintaining all user data on-premise. This feature resonates with companies cautious about entrusting critical user information to third parties. The product has also found favor among early-stage AI startups, prompting investment from Peak XV. Engida plans to enhance core features and introduce a paid enterprise infrastructure while retaining the community-built feel of the product. Better Auth, having graduated from YC's recent spring batch, is only the third Ethiopian startup to go through the accelerator, underscoring the significance of Engida's achievement in inspiring other Ethiopian founders to pursue ambitious global products.