Akka.io

Lightbend

Company type	Private
Industry	Software
Founded	2011 (2011)
Founder	Martin Odersky, Jonas Bonér, Paul Phillips
Headquarters	San Francisco Bay Area , United States
Key people	Tyler Jewell (CEO), Jonas Bonér (CTO)
Products	Play Framework, Akka, Scala, Slick, sbt, Lightbend Subscription, Lightbend Production Suite
Owner	Bain Capital Ventures (investor)

Lightbend, operating under the brand name Akka and previously identified as Typesafe, was established in 2011 by Martin Odersky, the creator of the Scala language, along with Jonas Bonér, the developer behind the Akka framework, and Paul Phillips.

The firm delivers a comprehensive platform for constructing reactive applications on the JVM. Its offerings include the Play Framework, Akka middleware, and the Scala language, complemented by auxiliary tools such as the Slick database library and the sbt build system. Lightbend also extends consulting services, training programs, and commercial support related to its platform.

As a significant contributor to Reactive Streams, Lightbend actively promotes standards for asynchronous stream processing.

In February 2016, Typesafe underwent a rebranding initiative, adopting the name Lightbend along with a redesigned logo.

Leadership

The company is headed by CEO Tyler Jewell, while CTO Jonas Bonér oversees its technological direction.

Investors

Lightbend initially raised $3 million in Series A funding from Greylock Partners. This was followed by a $14 million Series B round involving investors such as Shasta Ventures, Greylock, Juniper Networks, and Francois Stieger. Subsequently, a $20 million Series C investment led by Intel Capital brought in new participant Blue Cloud Ventures alongside existing investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Polytech Ecosystem Ventures, and Shasta Ventures. The cumulative investment secured reached $42 million.

Products

Lightbend is at the forefront of several important open-source and source-available initiatives, notably the event-driven middleware Akka, and plays a pivotal role in advancing the Scala programming language.

The company offers Lightbend Subscription, which guarantees round-the-clock developer assistance. Their commercial offering, the Lightbend Production Suite, includes features such as service orchestration, Lightbend Monitoring, application fault tolerance, and improved availability designed to support enterprise-level deployments.

Conferences

Lightbend is the originator of the Scala Days conference, which brings together developers worldwide to share knowledge about Scala-based development. This event is currently managed by the Scala Center.

Furthermore, Lightbend initiated the Reactive Summit, dedicated to asynchronous stream processing with Reactive Streams. This conference has since been transferred to the Linux Foundation.

Educational Resources

Through Lightbend Academy, the company provides an educational platform featuring online courses aimed at subscription clients to deepen their expertise in relevant technologies.