Bereket Engida, a self-taught programmer from Ethiopia, has secured $5 million in seed funding for his startup Better Auth—a developer tool that’s quickly gaining traction for its ease of use and open source foundation.
Investors include Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia), Y Combinator, P1 Ventures, and Chapter One.
Built in Ethiopia, scaling globally
Engida built the product entirely in Ethiopia before moving to the U.S. His journey began after he struggled to find a customizable, affordable alternative to authentication services like Auth0 or Firebase. So, he created Better Auth—a TypeScript-based framework that developers can integrate directly into their backend without handing user data to third parties.
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Traction with developers and AI startups
Since its GitHub debut in September 2024, Better Auth has amassed over 150,000 weekly downloads, 15,000+ stars, and 6,000+ community members on Discord. AI startups are especially drawn to it for its flexibility and scalability.
Open source first, enterprise next
The tool is currently free and open source, but Engida plans to release enterprise-grade infrastructure options soon. These would include optional cloud features while maintaining the flexibility for self-hosting.
Representation and ambition
Engida is the third Ethiopian founder to go through Y Combinator. He hopes Better Auth will inspire more African developers to build globally impactful products. “There aren’t many Ethiopian founders building global products,” he said. “So seeing that traction gives hope for other people to try to be more ambitious.”
