Self-Taught Ethiopian Programmer Secures $5M For Startup That Simplifies Authentication For Developers
This self-taught programmer has secured funding for his newly established startup.
According to TechCrunch, Bereket Engida had an idea while living in Ethiopia to create a startup that would resolve issues he experienced around authentication. As a programmer, he created a platform that helped developers observe user behavior on their websites while he was working at remote software jobs. This took him down a new rabbit hole after he noticed frequent issues around authentication. He also did not have great faith in some of the tools that already existed to handle the process, which prompted him to take matters into his own hands.
“I remember needing an organization feature. It’s a very common use case for most SaaS applications, but it wasn’t available from these providers,” Engida told TechCrunch. “So I had to build it from scratch. It took me about two weeks, and I remember thinking, ‘This is crazy; there has to be a better way to solve this.’”
Better Auth
This idea eventually grew into Better Auth by 2025, which is now a fan favorite among developers and is being marketed as “the most comprehensive authentication framework for TypeScript,” allowing users to set up authentication within minutes, its website mentions.
Additional benefits Better Auth provides:
- Framework agnostic, supporting React, Vue, Svelte, Astro, and more
- Email, password, and multi factor authentication
- Social sign-ons for platforms such as GitHub, Google, Discord, and X
- Automatic database management
- Built-In rate limiter
- Plugin ecosystem
What’s more, developers will be able to transfer their workflow directly into their databases.
“Authentication in the TypeScript ecosystem has long been a half-solved problem. Other open-source libraries often require a lot of additional code for anything beyond basic authentication features. Rather than just pushing third-party services as the solution, I believe we can do better as a community—hence, Better Auth,” a statement on the company website reads.
The platform, which is picking up steam from early-stage AI startups, has received a $5 million investment from Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia), Y Combinator, P1 Ventures, and Chapter One. The funding will support the addition of new features and the integration of a paid enterprise infrastructure.
“Building this feels important not just because people love the product, but because of what it represents,” Engida said. “There aren’t many Ethiopian founders building global products. For many, it feels almost impossible. So seeing that traction gives hope for other people to try to be more ambitious,” Engida told TechCrunch.
