If you're building in software — especially in infrastructure or AI — this is a central question. It's hotly debated and increasingly relevant as the world demands more innovation, trust, and sovereignty.
Yet, it remains largely unanswered.
The prevailing narrative says open source successes are non-repeatable anomalies, a view reinforced by recent license changes and skepticism about OSS transferability to AI.
Today, we bring our answer to that question—backed by 25 years of data on VC-backed Open Source companies.
Here’s how we broke it down:
1. Is Commercial Open Source (COSS) VC-fundable?
2. How challenging is the financing journey for COSS startups?
3. Do COSS companies deliver superior exits?
Today we are releasing a brand new report exploring the dynamics of Commercial Open-Source Software.
Here's a sneak peek of the findings:
> COSS companies, comprising only 10% of top GitHub projects, are 50x more likely to dominate the charts.
> While the U.S. leads in VC funding (82%), EMEA's share is rapidly rising, fueled by ventures like IA ventures.
> The most popular categories (eg. devtools) are not necessarily the ones that receive the most funding (eg. modern data stack). This underscores the importance of understanding that popularity based on metrics like stars and contributors may not align with economic attractivity.
> Companies seniority counts, as older COSS companies boast more loyal and vibrant communities, attributed to trust and reliability over time
> Nearly half of established projects engage with foundations, enhancing governance and long-term sustainability, thus attracting investors.
> Despite hot debates around hybrid licenses, permissive licenses remain the go-to for COSS organization, facilitating broad adoption and seamless integration into proprietary products.
If you're building in software — especially in infrastructure or AI — this is a central question. It's hotly debated and increasingly relevant as the world demands more innovation, trust, and sovereignty.
Yet, it remains largely unanswered.
The prevailing narrative says open source successes are non-repeatable anomalies, a view reinforced by recent license changes and skepticism about OSS transferability to AI.
Today, we bring our answer to that question—backed by 25 years of data on VC-backed Open Source companies.
Here’s how we broke it down: 1. Is Commercial Open Source (COSS) VC-fundable? 2. How challenging is the financing journey for COSS startups? 3. Do COSS companies deliver superior exits?