GitLab Inc.

Last updated

GitLab Inc.
GitLab logo (2).svg
Type of site
Available in English
Traded as
HeadquartersSan Francisco
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s)
  • Dmytro Zaporozhets
  • Sytse Sijbrandij
Key people
Industry Software
Revenue Increase2.svg US$759.2 million (2025) [2]
Operating income Increase Negative.svgUS$−143 million (2025) [2]
Net income Decrease2.svgUS$−6.33 billion (2025) [2]
Total assets Increase2.svgUS$1.399 billion (2025) [2]
Total equity Increase2.svgUS$821.3 million (2025) [2]
Employees2,375 (2025) [2]
URL about.gitlab.com/company/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
Launched2014;11 years ago (2014) [3]
Current statusOnline
Written in Ruby, Go and Vue.js
[4] [5]

GitLab Inc. is an American company that operates and develops GitLab, an open-core DevOps software package that can develop, secure, and operate software. [6] GitLab includes a distributed version control system based on Git, [7] including features such as access control, [8] bug tracking, [9] software feature requests, task management, [10] and wikis [11] for every project, as well as snippets. [12]

Contents

The open-source software project was created by Ukrainian developer Dmytro Zaporozhets and Dutch developer Sytse Sijbrandij. [13] In 2018, GitLab Inc. was considered to be the first partly Ukrainian unicorn. [14] [15] GitLab has an estimated over 30 million registered users, including 1 million active licensed users. [6] [16] There are more than 3,300 code contributors and team members in 60+ countries. [17]

Overview

GitLab Inc. was established in 2014 to continue the development of the open-source code-sharing platform launched in 2011 by Dmytro (or Dmitriy) Zaporozhets. The company's co-founder Sytse Sijbrandij initially contributed to the project and decided to build a business around it. [18] [19]

GitLab offers its platform using a freemium model. [18] Since its founding, GitLab Inc. has promoted remote work [20] and is known as one of the largest all-remote companies in the world. [21] By 2020, the company employed 1300 people in 65 countries. [20] [22]

History

The company participated in the YCombinator seed accelerator Winter 2015 program. By 2015, notable customers included Alibaba Group and IBM. [19]

In January 2017, a database administrator accidentally deleted the production database in the aftermath of a cyberattack, causing the loss of a substantial amount of issue data and merge request data. [23] The recovery process was live-streamed on YouTube. [24] [25]

In April 2018, GitLab Inc. announced integration with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to simplify the process of spinning up a new cluster to deploy applications. [26]

In May 2018, GNOME moved to GitLab with over 400 projects and 900 contributors. [27] [28]

On August 1, 2018, GitLab Inc. started development of Meltano. [29]

On August 11, 2018, GitLab Inc. moved from Microsoft Azure to Google Cloud Platform, making the service inaccessible to users in several regions including: Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria, due to sanctions imposed by Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States. [30] In order to overcome this limitation, the non-profit organization Framasoft began providing a Debian mirror to make GitLab CE available in those countries. [31]

In 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, GitLab Inc. released "GitLab's Guide to All-Remote" as well as a course on remote management for the purpose of aiding companies interested in building all-remote work cultures. [32] [33] In April, the company expanded into the Australian and Japanese markets. [34] [35] By November, it was valued at more than $6 billion in a secondary market evaluation. [36]

In 2021, OMERS participated in a secondary shares investment in GitLab Inc. [37]

On March 18, 2021, GitLab Inc. licensed its technology to the Chinese company JiHu. [38]

On June 30, 2021, GitLab Inc. spun out Meltano, an open source ELT platform. [39]

On July 23, 2021, GitLab Inc. released its software Package Hunter, a Falco-based tool that detects malicious code, [40] under the open-source MIT Licence.

On August 4, 2022, GitLab announced its plans for changing its Data Retention Policy and for automatically deleting inactive repositories which have not been modified for a year. As a result, in the following days GitLab received much criticism from the open-source community. [41] Shortly after, it was announced that dormant projects would not be deleted, and would instead remain accessible in an archived state, potentially using a slower type of storage. [42] [43]

In May 2023, the company launched the "GitLab 16.0" platform as an AI-driven DevSecOps solution. It contained over 55 new features and enhancements. [44]

In July 2024, Reuters reported that GitLab was exploring a potential sale after attracting acquisition interest, with cloud monitoring firm Datadog named as one of the interested parties. [45]

Fundraising

GitLab Inc. initially raised $1.5 million in seed funding. [19] Subsequent funding rounds include:

IPO

On September 17, 2021, GitLab Inc. publicly filed a registration statement Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to the proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock. [51] The firm began trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker "GTLB" on October 14, 2021. [52]

Adoption

GitLab Forge was officially adopted in 2023 by the French Ministry for Education to create a "Digital Educational Commons" of educational resources. [53]

Acquisitions

In March 2015, GitLab Inc. acquired competing Git hosting Service Gitorious, which had around 822,000 registered users at the time. [54] These users were encouraged to move to GitLab and the Gitorious service was discontinued in June 2015. [54]

On March 15, 2017, GitLab Inc. announced the acquisition of Gitter. [55] Included in the announcement was the stated intent that Gitter would continue as a standalone project. Additionally, GitLab Inc. announced that the code would become open-source under an MIT License no later than June 2017. [56]

In January 2018, GitLab Inc. acquired Gemnasium, a service that provided security scanners with alerts for known security vulnerabilities in open-source libraries of various languages. [57] The service was scheduled for complete shut-down on May 15. Gemnasium features and technology was integrated into GitLab EE and as part of CI/CD. [58]

On June 11, 2020, GitLab Inc. acquired Peach Tech, a security software firm specializing in protocol fuzz testing, and Fuzzit, [59] a continuous “fuzz” security testing solution.

On June 2, 2021, GitLab Inc. acquired UnReview, a tool that automates software review cycles. [60]

On December 14, 2021, GitLab Inc. announced that it had acquired Opstrace, Inc., developers of an open source software monitoring and observability platform. [61]

Controversy

GitLab was ceasing its GitLab.com account services for users in mainland China, Macau, and Hong Kong, urging them to migrate to JiHu (gitlab.cn), the Chinese entity authorized to distribute and support GitLab in the region, by February 18, 2025, after which their accounts will be deleted. This decision follows GitLab's 2021 establishment of a Chinese joint venture, JiHu Information Technology (Hubei) Co., Ltd., to provide localized GitLab services tailored for the Chinese market, operating independently from GitLab.com with separate infrastructure and management. [62]

In December 2024, JiHu faced severe internal and external criticism. A now-former JiHu GitLab DevOps architect publicly revealed an alleged "Endgame Plan" orchestrated by the company's CEO Liu Gang, which involved pressuring free GitLab CE users in China to become paying customers through potentially misleading legal tactics. Following these public accusations and a call for the CEO's removal, the architect was terminated and faced legal demands for retraction. He also made allegations regarding concealed American capital within JiHu GitLab, potentially posing national security risks due to the company's involvement with a Chinese aerospace entity. [63]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "GitLab 14 Delivers Modern DevOps in One Platform". DevPro Journal. July 12, 2021. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "GitLab Inc. FY 2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". SEC.gov. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 21, 2025. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  3. ↑ "GitLab hauls in $268M Series E on 2.75B valuation". September 17, 2019.
  4. ↑ "GitLab Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results". ir.gitlab.com. March 15, 2023. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
  5. ↑ Sijbrandij, Sid (October 14, 2021). "GitLab goes public on Nasdaq a $10 billion IPO". CNBC . Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  6. 1 2 "GitLab goes public on Nasdaq a $10 billion IPO". CNBC . October 14, 2021. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Learn Git - GitLab" . Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Control access and visibility - GitLab" . Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Issues - GitLab" . Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Tasks - GitLab" . Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  11. ↑ "Wikis - GitLab" . Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  12. ↑ "Snippets - GitLab" . Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  13. ↑ Lee, Isabelle. "Coding platform GitLab leaps 23% in trading debut after pricing IPO at $77 a share". Markets Insider . Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  14. ↑ "GitLab, founded by a Ukrainian citizen, raised $100 million. It became a unicorn valued at $ 1.1 billion". AIN.UA. October 30, 2018. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  15. ↑ "Dmytriy Zaporozhets, GitLab: "I believe that GitLab can be called a Ukrainian startup"". AIN.UA. November 30, 2018. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  16. ↑ Goled, Shraddha (September 22, 2021). "GitLab To Go Public: Tracing The Company's Highs & Lows". Analytics India Magazine. Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  17. ↑ "About GitLab". about.gitlab.com. Retrieved May 5, 2024.
  18. 1 2 Albert-Deitch, Cameron (November 13, 2018). "How This Startup Made $10.5 Million in Revenue With Every Single Employee Working From Home". Inc.com. Archived from the original on April 26, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  19. 1 2 3 Novet, Jordan (July 9, 2015). "Y Combinator-backed GitHub competitor GitLab raises $1.5M". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  20. 1 2 Novet, Jordan (July 18, 2020). "This Company Was Fully Remote with 1,300 Employees Long before Coronavirus — Here's How They Did It". CNBC . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  21. ↑ Cameron Albert-Deitch (September 23, 2019). "This $2.75 Billion Company Employs Only Remote Workers. Here's How It Works". Inc. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  22. ↑ Liu, Jennifer (December 9, 2020). "How a Company with 1,300 Remote Workers in 65 countries Is Approaching Holiday Events". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  23. ↑ "GitLab.com Database Incident". Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  24. ↑ "Gitlab Database Incident - Live Troubleshooting - YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  25. ↑ Hughes, Matthew (February 1, 2017). "GitLab offline after catastrophic database error loses mountains of data". The Next Web. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  26. ↑ "GitLab gets a native integration with Google's Kubernetes Engine". TechCrunch. April 5, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  27. ↑ "GNOME, welcome to GitLab!". GitLab. Archived from the original on June 6, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  28. ↑ "GNOME moves to Gitlab – GNOME". www.gnome.org. Archived from the original on December 23, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  29. ↑ "Hey, data teams - We're working on a tool just for you". August 1, 2018. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  30. ↑ "Update on our planned move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform". The Official Gitlab Blog. July 19, 2018. Archived from the original on November 11, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  31. ↑ "Framasoft Gitlab CE's repositories mirror". apt.gitlab.mirror.Framasoft.org. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020..
  32. ↑ Miller, Ron (March 24, 2020). "GitLab offers key lessons in running an all-remote workforce in new e-book". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  33. ↑ Daso, Frederick (October 4, 2021). "Pareto Eliminates Mundane Tasks For Founders Building Their Startups". Forbes . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  34. ↑ Tan, Aaron (April 15, 2020). "GitLab expands into Australia as DevOps tooling market heats up". Computer Weekly . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  35. ↑ Akutsu, Yoshikazu (April 30, 2020). "GitLab launches in the Japanese market "DevOps life cycle is realized in a single unit"". TechRepublic . Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  36. ↑ Levy, Ari (December 1, 2020). "GitLab is being valued at more than $6 billion in secondary share sale". CNBC . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  37. ↑ "OMERS Participates in Secondary Shares Deal of GitLab". SWFI. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  38. ↑ "GitLab China established a joint venture company "Jihu"". Finance Sina. March 19, 2021. Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  39. ↑ "Meltano Spins out of GitLab, Raises $4.2M in Seed Funding Led by GV to Enhance Open Source Data Integration". GitLab. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  40. ↑ Sawers, Paul (August 2, 2021). "GitLab's open source Package Hunter detects malicious code in dependencies". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  41. ↑ Sharwood, Simon (August 4, 2022). "GitLab plans to delete dormant projects in free accounts". The Register. Archived from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
  42. ↑ Sharwood, Simon (August 5, 2022). "GitLab U-turns on deleting dormant projects after backlash". The Register. Archived from the original on August 8, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
  43. ↑ @gitlab (August 4, 2022). "Gitlab's response regarding inactive repos" (Tweet). Retrieved August 8, 2022– via Twitter.
  44. ↑ "GitLab announces AI-DevSecOps platform GitLab 16". techrepublic.com. May 26, 2023. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  45. ↑ "Exclusive: Google-backed software developer GitLab explores sale, sources say". Reuters. July 17, 2024. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
  46. ↑ "GitLab Raises $4M Series A Round From Khosla Ventures". TechCrunch. September 17, 2015. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  47. ↑ Miller, Ron (September 13, 2016). "GitLab secures $20 million Series B". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  48. ↑ "GitLab raises $20M Series C round led by GV". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  49. ↑ "Ukrainian startup GitLab raises $268 million at a valuation of $2.7 billion". AIN.UA. September 18, 2019. Archived from the original on September 27, 2019. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  50. ↑ "GitLab raises $268 million at a $2.7 billion valuation". VentureBeat. September 17, 2019. Archived from the original on September 27, 2019. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  51. ↑ Levy, Ari (September 17, 2021). "Microsoft GitHub rival GitLab files to go public after annualized revenue tops $200 million". CNBC . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  52. ↑ Boorstin, Julia; Fortt, Jon (October 14, 2021). "GitLab goes public on Nasdaq a $10 billion IPO". CNBC TechCheck. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  53. ↑ "A GitLab forge for all teachers and students in France?". fosdem.org. Archived from the original on February 10, 2023. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
  54. 1 2 Degeler, Andrii (March 3, 2015). "Code Collaboration Platform GitLab Acquires Rival Gitorious". The Next Web. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  55. ↑ "GitLab acquires software chat startup Gitter, will open-source the code". VentureBeat. March 15, 2017. Archived from the original on July 8, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  56. ↑ "Gitter is joining the GitLab team". GitLab. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  57. ↑ "GitLab acquires Gemnasium to strengthen its security services". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  58. ↑ Condon, Stephanie. "GitLab makes CI/CD tools available for GitHub repositories". ZDNet. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  59. ↑ Taft, Darryl (June 12, 2021). "GitLab makes two acquisitions to shift fuzz testing left". TechTarget . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  60. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (June 2, 2021). "GitLab acquires UnReview as it looks to bring more ML tools to its platform". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  61. ↑ "GitLab will create the first integrated observability solution within a DevOps Platform". GitLab Investor Relations. December 14, 2021. Archived from the original on December 17, 2021. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
  62. ↑ cnBeta. "GitLab不再为中国区用户提供GitLab.com账号服务 旧账户将被删除 - 最新消息". cnBeta.COM (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved April 13, 2025.
  63. ↑ 号召全体员工“一起开除老板”，极狐 GitLab 架构师怒斥高层“恐吓免费版用户”，前员工揭 CEO“不懂开源”-36氪 ["Let's All Fire the Boss": JiHu GitLab Architect Lambastes Executives for "Threatening Free Users," Ex-Employee Exposes CEO's "Lack of Open Source Understanding" - 36Kr]. 36kr.com. April 14, 2025. Retrieved April 13, 2025.
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