Simplifying Observability for Developers Everywhere: Our Investment in Dash0

Observability - the ability to track the telemetry data that applications produce, such as metrics, logs, and traces - is one of the most powerful tools a developer can have at their disposal, and represents a $50B market opportunity. Analyzing telemetry data helps businesses to improve performance, reliability and user experience, and the launch of OpenTelemetry in 2019 made this even easier by providing universal open-source standards for data measurement. Despite this, OpenTelemetry’s potential is mostly untapped, with legacy observability tools favoring outdated, proprietary data collection methods that cannot be understood by other tools. The result is a poor user experience, data that can’t be contextualized, and high, unpredictable costs based on inconsistent standards.

Mirko Novakovic, Ben Blackmore, Miel Donkers, Marcel Birkner and Michele Mancioppi set out to change this and founded Dash0, the first observability tool that is OpenTelemetry-native. After seeing the opportunity to accelerate the adoption of OpenTelemetry in the software market, Mirko, Ben, Miel, Marcel and Michele built Dash0 from the ground up on top of these standards to empower developers with an observability framework that is easier to install, integrate, and use than legacy alternatives. Users have access to an intuitive UI, thanks to fully-customizable dashboards, while the platform also fully-supports PromQL and Perses, giving developers complete flexibility to query and visualize their observability data in real time. Integrations with Slack, email, and custom webhooks support easy, proactive monitoring and alerting. 

Dash0’s OpenTelemetry-native approach means that it is the only observability tool that does not generate proprietary data for its customers, instead providing visibility of vendor-agnostic performance data that is standardized and fully contextualized. This prevents observability costs from spiraling, instead allowing transparent, real-time pricing based on standardized units of observability data generated by Dash0 users. Customers pay Dash0 based on the count of data they send, meaning they know exactly when and how charges are incurred. The Dash0 platform has also been built to prioritize trust and security, and is already SOC 2 Type 2 certified - one of the most rigorous information security standards - and GDPR-compliant, meaning that users’ telemetry data remains completely private. 

Since its inception in 2023, Dash0 has already gained impressive momentum. Its team has grown to more than 20 people and early design customers, including catchHR, ChargeTrip and Porsche Digital, have come on board following Dash0’s early beta launch in September. Mirko is also no stranger to the Accel team as he previously founded observability company Instana, which became part of the Accel family following our investment in 2017 and was acquired by IBM in 2020. Back then, it was clear that Mirko was not only an exceptional entrepreneur but a genuine leader in the tech community - not only in Solingen where Instana was founded but globally. We’re delighted to be partnering with Mirko and the Dash0 team on their mission to simplify observability for developers everywhere.