StepChange: Performance at Scale, Simplified

In the evolving landscape of modern engineering, where every dollar spent on infrastructure must deliver results, StepChange is rewriting the rules. At Ritual Capital, we believe in founders who don’t just see inefficiencies—they tackle them head-on with vision and precision. That’s why we’re thrilled to back StepChange.

StepChange was born from the lived experience of scaling some of the most complex systems in tech. Founders Niall O’Higgins and Harry Tormey met at Coinbase during crypto’s meteoric rise and experienced the challenge of balancing performance, reliability, and cost. At its peak, Coinbase’s observability spend climbed to eye-watering levels—$65 million annually on DataDog alone. The industry-wide pain was clear: companies were overspending on monitoring tools that flagged problems but didn’t solve them. StepChange is here to fix that.

Niall and Harry saw an opportunity to do more than diagnose issues; they envisioned a solution that would automate problem-solving, cut costs, and keep engineering teams focused on building, not firefighting. After months of prototyping and countless conversations with engineers and CTOs, they founded StepChange Labs. Their mission: to deliver performance and reliability without the heavy overhead.

Fast forward to today, and StepChange has unveiled APX (Application Performance Xcellerator), an AI-driven platform that doesn’t just monitor systems—it optimizes them. APX automatically detects, diagnoses, and resolves performance bottlenecks, from slow queries to infrastructure inefficiencies, all without manual intervention. It’s like having a senior performance engineer embedded in your systems 24/7, slashing observability costs by up to 50%.

StepChange isn’t just building a product—they’re setting a new standard for how engineering teams approach performance. Their early results speak volumes: startups and tech giants alike have relied on their expertise to scale reliably and leanly. Now, with APX, the same level of impact is available at the click of a button.

To fuel this momentum, StepChange has raised a $4 million seed round, led by Kindred Ventures and The General Partnership, with support from Ritual Capital and Liquid 2 Ventures. This funding will accelerate product development and bring APX to more companies looking to balance speed, scalability, and efficiency.

For companies navigating the challenges of high-growth scaling, StepChange offers more than a product; it’s a promise. A promise that engineering teams can focus on building transformative technology while StepChange ensures their systems run faster, smarter, and more efficiently.

We’re proud to be part of this journey. If you’re ready to see what StepChange can do for your team, visit their site to learn more and try APX today.

Visit Stepchange at https://stepchange.work.