Tangled, a Finland-linked code collaboration platform, has closed a €3.8 million seed round aimed at scaling its decentralised Git collaboration network and positioning the company as a European alternative to entrenched US incumbents like GitHub. The round brings a mix of institutional and prominent angel support, anchored by community-led VC byFounders.
Tangled is a decentralised Git hosting and collaboration platform built on the AT Protocol, the open decentralised networking layer originally developed for federated social applications. It integrates code hosting, pull-request workflows, and social features into a network of lightweight servers called “knots,” which can be self-hosted or run as managed services.
This architecture is intended to provide developers full ownership of their code, professional network, and data, while enabling seamless interaction across federated nodes without dependence on a single corporate operator’s API or data silo.
Target customers include individual and community developers, research groups and teams seeking alternatives to centralised platforms. Public information about revenue or pricing is limited; at present Tangled appears focused on growing usage and platform capabilities rather than monetisation.
Tangled’s €3.8 million (around $4.5 million) seed round is led by byFounders, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and existing investor Antler. The round attracted several high-profile angel investors, including Thomas Dohmke, former CEO of GitHub; Avery Pennarun, CEO of Tailscale; Mårten Mickos, former CEO of MySQL and HackerOne; and Finnish investor Sami Honkonen.
Public reporting does not disclose a valuation.
Use of funds is described at a high level: the company plans to build out its platform into a “foundational environment” for software collaboration that supports contributions from both human developers and automated agents. Precise headcount expansion or budget categories are not publicly available.
The developer tools and code collaboration space remains dominated by US-based products. GitHub alone hosts the vast majority of open source projects, and its acquisition by Microsoft in 2018 shifted control of a critical piece of global software infrastructure into a large corporate entity.
European founders and policymakers have increasingly cited digital sovereignty concerns in technology infrastructure, from cloud hosting to data governance; Tangled’s narrative aligns with these themes without explicit regulatory mention.
At the same time, decentralised development tools are not novel. Projects such as Radicle and federated models built on ActivityPub have explored alternative approaches to hosting and collaboration. Tangled’s choice of the AT Protocol distinguishes it technically by layering code collaboration atop a federated identity and data network designed for cross-service interoperability.
Direct competitors include incumbent code hosting and collaboration services such as GitHub, GitLab and open-source hosts like Codeberg. Projects in adjacent, more decentralised niches include Radicle and Forgejo, each with different architectural trade-offs (peer-to-peer vs federated, centralised identity vs distributed).
Tangled’s specific choice of the AT Protocol positions it uniquely among decentralised approaches, but it shares fundamental goals with these platforms: reducing lock-in, enabling community governance and enhancing data portability.
Structural risks persist. Established platforms have deep integrations with developer workflows, extensive ecosystems of extensions and far broader user bases. Decentralised protocols also impose technical complexity that can dampen adoption unless usability matches centralised alternatives.
This seed round is notable more for its investor profile than sheer size. Bringing in figures such as the former CEO of GitHub signals interest from insiders familiar with the scale and limitations of existing collaboration infrastructure. It suggests that a credible technical community is emerging around alternatives that explicitly address data ownership and interoperability concerns.
The raise also reflects broader European ecosystem trends: early-stage funding in developer tools and protocols remains selective compared with other verticals, so tangible capital commitments, particularly those led by community and crypto-oriented funds, serve as early momentum signals.
With its new capital, Tangled faces the operational challenges of scaling beyond early adopters and proving that decentralised collaboration can match the reliability and convenience of entrenched platforms. The runway ahead will test both the product’s technical assumptions and its ability to attract a broader developer base without replicating friction from existing decentralised attempts.
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