Better Auth, an authentication tool by a self-taught Ethiopian dev, raises $5M from Peak XV, YC

June 25, 2025 · Tage Kene-Okafor

URL: https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/25/this-self-taught-ethiopian-dev-built-an-authentication-tool-and-got-into-yc/

“Since then, Better Auth has clocked 150,000+ weekly downloads, 15,000+ GitHub stars, and a community of over 6,000 Discord members, the startup claims.”

Bereket Engida built a TypeScript auth library mostly alone in Ethiopia, and it keeps user data in your own database instead of Auth0’s. It raised $5 million from Peak XV and YC. The library is free today, and paid enterprise and cloud add-ons are on the roadmap. Open source auth with VC money has a known ending.