Now that it has attracted thousands of users and is growing rapidly,  bitHound aims to soon close a funding round to continue this growth.

Operating out of a heritage house in downtown Kitchener, bitHound is a two-year-old company that helps development teams to monitor and assess the code they’re importing to use in their project.

Given that its founders had experience in successfully launching and exiting startups, the company was able to land $515,000 in angel financing when it started in 2013. A year ago, it brought in about $800,000 from BDC Capital and noted Toronto investor Michael Wekerle, so it has raised a total of $1.3 million so far.

“Now we’re targeting another $1.3 to $1.5 million and hope to close by the end of the year,” said Co-Founder and CEO Dan Silivestru in an interview this week.

Silivestru was previously the Co-Founder and CTO of tinyHippos, which was bought by BlackBerry in 2011, and he spent time as the Executive-in-Residence at Communitech. Then in 2013 he teamed up with his tinyHippos Co-Founder Pj Lowe-Silivestru and tech veteran Gord Tanner to found bitHound.

The idea behind the company is that teams developing software projects are under constant pressure, with deadlines, the coordination of team members, and the demands of customers. And as much as 90 percent of the software in any project is imported and it needs to be stable and compatible with the overall project. By ensuring the stability of imported software, bitHound can speed up development and save customers time and grief.

BitHound helps management and JavaScript developers understand what is going into a project and check to make sure all the software packages are stable and compatible. For managers, it gives them a “40,000-foot view” of the entire project. And for developers, it provides a detailed assessment of the code they are using right down to the line of code.

The team spent their first year developing the project, then undertook a closed beta-test with about 300 users. This past May, it expanded to an open beta with about 800 users. The user-base, some of whom are paying customers, has since grown strongly and is currently more than doubling  month-over-month.

The large number of users is providing a broad base of feedback, and Silivestru said the response has been overwhelmingly positive, because of bitHound’s ease of use and the clarity it provides. He added that the company’s competitors tend to give a broad assessment of all languages whereas bitHound from the outset has focused on a deep analysis of JavaScript.

BitHound now has a team of eight toiling in the restored home (which is known around town for its team meetings on the deck on sunny summer days). The team is examining new sales channels and continuing to develop new features to improve the product.

“We want to make sure that our inserts aren’t just noise that gets ignored but are things that are actionable,” said Silivestru.