The investment was spearheaded by Peak XV Partners (previously known as Sequoia Capital India & Southeast Asia), with backing from Y Combinator, Chapter One, and P1 Ventures, among others.

The brainchild of Bereket Engida, a self-taught programmer, Better Auth is designed to offer open-source authentication solutions that empower developers to implement a wide range of user access controls—from basic login processes to more advanced role- and team-based permission systems—without needing to compromise user data to third-party providers.

Engida was inspired to build the tool after repeatedly encountering limitations in existing platforms like Auth0 and Firebase during his software development work.

These tools often proved inflexible, costly, or incompatible with the data hosting preferences of developers.

In response, he created a self-hosted, TypeScript-based authentication library that is both easy to integrate and scalable, catering to the needs of both startups and larger enterprises.

Since its introduction, Better Auth has gained significant interest, particularly from artificial intelligence startups that demand highly customizable authentication features, efficient token handling, and cost-effective scaling solutions.

This funding marks a major milestone for Ethiopia’s growing tech ecosystem and underscores the rising global interest in African-built developer infrastructure tools.