In the tech world, it’s quite uncommon to witness a solo entrepreneur successfully creating a widely embraced developer infrastructure tool, especially when that founder hails from Africa. Bereket Engida, a self-taught coder from Ethiopia, is making waves with what many developers are calling the most effective authentication tool available today.
Engida’s venture presents an open-source framework designed to streamline user authentication management for developers. This innovative approach has attracted significant attention from prominent investors, culminating in a recent seed funding round that raised approximately $5 million from notable firms.
What sets this story apart is not just the impressive roster of investors but the fact that Engida developed the entire product in Ethiopia before even stepping foot in the United States.
Engida’s journey into programming began at the age of 18 when a friend declined to assist him in creating an e-commerce search application. Undeterred, he took matters into his own hands and began working on the project independently. This led to remote software development opportunities and the creation of a web analytics platform that enables developers to track user interactions on their websites.
Throughout his career, Engida noticed a recurring challenge: user authentication. Every application requires a method for users to log in, log out, and reset passwords, while administrators often need to manage permissions and user roles. However, he found that existing solutions were either too restrictive or overly complicated. While companies like Auth0 and Firebase provide managed services, they often store user data externally, limit customization options, and can become costly as usage scales.
“I distinctly remember needing an organizational feature, which is a common requirement for most SaaS applications, but it was unavailable from these providers,” Engida shared. “This prompted me to build it from the ground up. It took about two weeks, and I thought to myself, ‘There must be a more efficient way to tackle this issue.’”
Consequently, he abandoned that initial project and shifted his focus to developing a TypeScript-based authentication framework. This new framework would allow developers to access user data through open-source libraries, support common permission scenarios like teams and roles right out of the box, and scale seamlessly with plug-ins.
Engida envisioned a solution where developers could implement advanced features with just a few lines of code.
Over a six-month period, primarily working from his bedroom in Ethiopia, he crafted the first iteration of what would eventually become his authentication tool. When he shared it on GitHub in September 2024, it quickly garnered attention from the developer community.
Since its launch, the tool has achieved over 150,000 weekly downloads, received more than 15,000 stars on GitHub, and built a community of over 6,000 members on Discord, according to the startup’s claims.
The core proposition of this authentication solution is straightforward: it enables developers to implement everything from basic authentication processes to complex enterprise systems directly within their databases. Unlike hosted services, this open-source library allows developers to integrate it directly into their codebase, ensuring that all user data remains on-premises. This feature is particularly appealing to companies concerned about sharing sensitive user information with third parties.
Interestingly, the library has also gained traction among early-stage AI startups, which require tailored authentication flows that work with proprietary APIs, manage tokens securely, and scale efficiently without incurring high costs.
“We first learned about this product from several startups we’ve collaborated with,” remarked a partner at one of the investing firms. “Their authentication solution has seen remarkable adoption among the emerging generation of AI startups.”
This investment marks a significant milestone as it represents the first direct investment by the firm in an African entrepreneur.
Engida envisions that while the authentication tool is currently free, the focus will shift towards enhancing its core features and introducing a paid enterprise infrastructure that integrates with the open-source foundation. This will provide developers with the option to self-host or utilize cloud add-ons as needed.
He is also contemplating how to scale the operation without compromising the community-driven essence of the product. Plans include hiring a small team to help maintain the codebase, enhance documentation, and support enterprise users. For the time being, however, Engida continues to write most of the code himself.
Having recently graduated from a prominent startup accelerator program, this authentication tool is the third Ethiopian startup to complete the program, following a drone-based health platform and a food delivery service.
“Creating this product feels significant not only because of its popularity but also due to what it symbolizes,” Engida expressed. “There are not many Ethiopian founders developing global products. For many, it seems almost unattainable. Therefore, witnessing this success inspires others to pursue their ambitions.”