Better Auth: Ethiopian Self-Taught Developer’s Authentication Tool Raises $5M from Peak XV and Y Combinator

It’s rare for a solo founder to develop a widely embraced developer infrastructure tool, especially one emerging from Africa. Bereket Engida, a self-taught programmer from Ethiopia, is discreetly creating what many developers are calling the best authentication tool they’ve ever used.

Engida’s startup, Better Auth, offers an open-source framework aimed at simplifying user authentication management for developers, which has piqued the interest of notable investors. The company recently raised approximately $5 million in seed funding from Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia), Y Combinator, P1 Ventures, and Chapter One.

Yet, the most remarkable aspect isn’t the investors backing the startup: Engida reveals that he developed the entire product while still in Ethiopia, before ever arriving in the U.S.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Engida shared that he began programming at age 18 after a friend declined to help him build an e-commerce search app, leading him to take on the venture independently. He later secured remote software jobs and created a web analytics platform that allows developers to track user behavior on their websites.

Throughout his various roles, Engida noted a persistent challenge: authentication. Every application needs systems for user sign-ins, password resets, and sometimes permissions management. He found that existing tools were either too limited or too rigid—companies like Auth0, Firebase, and NextAuth offer managed services but store user data offsite, restrict customization, and can become expensive at scale.

“I remember needing an organizational feature, which is common in many SaaS applications, yet it wasn’t available from these services,” Engida told TechCrunch. “So, I built it from the ground up in about two weeks, thinking, ‘This is ridiculous; there has to be a more efficient solution.’”

He eventually pivoted away from that project and started developing a TypeScript-based authentication framework, enabling developers to access user data through open-source libraries, manage typical permission scenarios like teams and roles, and scale with plugins.

“The aim was to facilitate the addition of advanced features with just two or three lines of code,” Engida mentioned.

Why developers appreciate it

Over six months, primarily from his bedroom in Ethiopia, Engida built the initial version of the library that would become Better Auth. After launching it on GitHub in September 2024, developers quickly recognized its potential.

Since then, Better Auth has achieved over 150,000 weekly downloads, accumulated more than 15,000 GitHub stars, and fostered a community of over 6,000 members on Discord, according to the startup.

The allure of Better Auth is clear: it enables developers to implement everything from simple authentication processes to enterprise-level systems directly on their databases, allowing it all to be integrated in the back end. Unlike hosted services, Better Auth is an open-source library that developers can embed directly into their codebases, ensuring all user data remains on-premise within their databases. This feature is particularly beneficial for companies wary of sharing sensitive user information with third parties.

The library has also unexpectedly become popular among early-stage AI startups that need custom authentication workflows that integrate with proprietary APIs, manage tokens securely, and scale without incurring excessive costs.

“We first learned about the product from several startups we’ve partnered with,” said Arnav Sahu, a partner at Peak XV and former principal at Y Combinator. “Their authentication product has seen significant adoption within the next generation of AI startups.”

Better Auth marks Peak XV’s initial direct investment in an African founder.

Engida noted that Better Auth, which is currently free to use, plans to enhance its core features while introducing a paid enterprise infrastructure that integrates with its open-source foundation. This will provide developers with the option to self-host or utilize Better Auth’s cloud add-ons as necessary.

He is also considering how to scale without compromising the community-driven spirit of the product. Plans include hiring a small team to help maintain the codebase, expand documentation, and support enterprise users. For now, however, Engida still writes the majority of the code himself.

Better Auth, which recently completed Y Combinator’s latest spring batch, is the third Ethiopian startup to go through the accelerator, following drone-based digital health service Avion and food delivery platform BeU Delivery.

“Building this is essential not only because people appreciate the product but also due to what it represents,” Engida stated. “Few Ethiopian founders are creating global products. For many, it feels almost impossible. So witnessing this growth offers hope for others to pursue more ambitious goals.”