The Israeli startup is building a “GenAI data lake” to give engineering leaders visibility into how AI tools impact productivity, code quality, and delivery speed.
Making GenAI Accountable for Business Outcomes
Generative AI is now embedded in many developers’ workflows, but most companies lack visibility into whether it’s actually delivering a return on investment (ROI). That’s the problem Milestone, an Israeli startup, wants to solve.
By raising a $10 million seed round led by Heavybit and Hanaco Ventures, Milestone is betting that tracking and quantifying the real-world impact of AI code tools is the next frontier in enterprise software development.
A Platform That Measures What Matters
Milestone connects to a company’s codebase, project management systems, team structure, and AI code tools — including GitHub Copilot — to build what co-founder Liad Elidan calls a “GenAI data lake.”
This unified data platform allows engineering leaders to:
- See which teams are using AI tools
- Measure feature delivery speed
- Assess code quality and bug rates
- Determine whether AI-generated code causes regressions
The ultimate goal: provide a granular view of GenAI’s ROI so managers can make evidence-based decisions about tool adoption, retention, or expansion.
“We don’t have a customer who said GenAI didn’t help and revoked licenses,” Elidan noted. “It’s actually the opposite. They want to try more tools.”
From Professor to CTO: A Unique Founding Journey
Milestone’s origins are as unconventional as its mission. Elidan’s co-founder and CTO, Professor Stephen Barrett, teaches computer science at Trinity College Dublin. The two had collaborated on software projects for years — despite never meeting in person until fundraising began.
Barrett brings an academic perspective to the rapidly changing GenAI space, where traditional engineering models are being reshaped.
“AI is filling out the team,” Barrett said. “Engineers are now becoming managers of these intelligent agents.”
Enterprise-First Strategy with Big-Name Clients
Milestone’s strategy has been focused from day one: serve large enterprises only. That decision meant turning away smaller clients, but it allowed the startup to build deep, enterprise-ready integrations and features.
Current customers include:
- Kayak
- Monday.com
- Sapiens
The company also partners with key ecosystem players such as:
- GitHub
- Augment Code
- Qodo
- Continue
- Atlassian, whose venture arm also invested
Backed by Industry Titans
The seed round included backing from a notable group of angel investors with deep ties to enterprise tech:
- Tom Preston-Werner (GitHub co-founder)
- John Donovan (former AT&T CEO)
- Paul Daugherty (Accenture CTO)
- Amit Agrawal (ex-president of Datadog)
These investors see Milestone’s approach as essential in an era where AI adoption is moving faster than accountability.
Staying Focused in a Broad AI Market
Despite interest from other departments like marketing and HR, Milestone is staying firmly in the engineering lane. Its roadmap is focused entirely on serving developers, managers, and CTOs who are under pressure to prove AI’s business value.
“Focus is what got us here,” Elidan said. “We’re not measuring AI impact everywhere. Just where it counts most right now — engineering.”
