Linear, a leading enterprise software company, has reached a $1.25 billion valuation after securing an $82 million Series C funding round on June 10, 2025. Accel led the round, with continued support from 01A and Sequoia, joined by new investors Seven Seven Six and Designer Fund. Additional new investors include Indie.vc, TK Ventures, Soleio, Jeff Weinstein, Ilkka Paananen, and Lauren & Vlad Loktev.
This investment highlights growing confidence in Linear’s ability to challenge established players like Atlassian’s Jira and demonstrates the company’s momentum in the project management market. Based in San Francisco, Linear has earned recognition for its comprehensive software development lifecycle management solution, featuring streamlined issue tracking, sprint planning, and structured long-term initiatives.
The Series C round brings Linear’s total funding to $134.2 million. It combines primary and secondary funding to provide liquidity for early employees and investors while supporting growth initiatives. Previous rounds include a $4.2 million seed round in 2019 (led by Sequoia), a $13 million Series A in 2020, and a $35 million Series B in 2023 (led by Accel).
With a remote-first team of 80 employees, Linear plans to use the new capital to expand its product lineup and attract larger enterprise customers. The company maintains that smaller, focused teams achieve superior results and is actively hiring product development enthusiasts.
Product philosophy and differentiation
Founded in 2019, Linear creates project management and software development tools for product and engineering teams. The platform stands out for its minimalist, keyboard-driven interface, emphasising speed and clarity.
CEO Karri Saarinen, formerly of Uber, Airbnb, and Coinbase, leads Linear with a vision to empower builders and maintain the inspiration in software development. The company creates tools that foster team connections, believing this approach leads to better software. Linear has built a vibrant community, including over 1,000 Slack members, and has become crucial infrastructure for remote teams.
While traditional tools emphasise customisation, Linear focuses on specific use cases: a built-in triage inbox for managing bugs and feature requests, sprint planning through “Cycles,” and structured long-term initiatives. The platform integrates AI as a team member, which is increasingly important in modern development, and offers workflows that make migration from legacy tools like Jira seamless.
Linear takes a measured approach to AI with two key initiatives: “Linear for Agents,” which manages various agents within product workflows, and “Linear AI,” which offers smarter issue creation, automated triage, and feedback summarisation. Recent updates include Pulse (a personalised organisational feed), an enhanced AI-powered search engine, Google Sheets integration, and improved media handling.
Linear’s customer-first approach distinguishes it from competitors. Instead of adding superfluous AI features, the company focuses on user needs and practical solutions. As Accel partner Miles Clements puts it, “There are a lot of vendors pushing unwanted AI slop into the market, and the Linear team instead is clued into what users are looking for and then providing them something they want.”
Linear’s finances have flourished, with profits up 280% last year and profitability maintained since 2021, just one year after launch. The company has achieved a “negative lifetime burn rate,” holding more cash than it has raised.
Now serving over 15,000 customers, from startups to public enterprises, Linear counts OpenAI, Scale AI, Perplexity, Cash App, Supercell, Vercel, and Loom among its clients. Many have switched from legacy tools like Jira, showing strong demand for Linear’s streamlined approach.
What’s next for Linear?
Linear’s emphasis on simplicity, performance, and targeted features has established it as a strong challenger to Atlassian, especially for teams seeking efficient project management. Its ongoing innovation, thoughtful AI integration, and customer focus are set to drive continued growth.
CEO Saarinen affirms that post-funding, Linear’s mission remains steady: building with quality and purpose, while staying true to company-building fundamentals without compromising values for growth.
The platform has become vital for remote operations, functioning as a digital workspace for decision-making and communication, and serves as essential infrastructure for distributed teams in the post-pandemic landscape.
