Founders Raise $4.5M for GitHub Alternative
Two Indian-origin brothers have raised $4.5 million to build a European, open-source alternative to GitHub. The funding signals continued investor interest in open platforms and tools that cater to the developer ecosystem.
The company, named Tangled, was founded by brothers Akshay and Anirudh Oppiliappan. Akshay is based in London, while Anirudh is in Helsinki, reflecting the startup's pan-European identity. Both founders have a background in building large-scale distributed systems and code intelligence platforms at startups backed by Y Combinator. The $4.5 million funding round was led by byFounders, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and existing investor Antler. The investment also attracted a notable group of angel investors, including Thomas Dohmke, the former CEO of GitHub. Other angel investors include Avery Pennarun, CEO of Tailscale, and Mårten Mickos, the former CEO of MySQL and HackerOne. Tangled is positioning itself as a "European" alternative to address the continent's growing focus on "digital sovereignty." The founders aim to provide a platform that prioritizes transparency and developer ownership, moving away from what they describe as the limitations of centralized, US-controlled platforms. The platform is being built on Bluesky's AT Protocol, a decentralized social networking protocol. This technical choice aims to move beyond "siloed, server-locked platforms" and enable greater interoperability and control for developers over their work and professional connections. The name "Tangled" itself refers to a decentralized network of self-hostable servers called "knots."
