Bronto, an AI-native log data platform company, has raised $14 million in seed funding led by Cercano Management, alongside Heavybit and Conviction Capital. The Dublin-based startup is tackling one of infrastructure's most persistent problems: making log management work at the scale and speed that AI demands.
The funding will support the company's mission to eliminate the painful tradeoffs that have plagued logging for years. Mid-market and enterprise customers currently face a tough choice—pay massive bills for adequate data retention or delete information needed for debugging, security, and compliance.
Log management hasn't kept up with modern computing needs, and AI has made the situation worse. Companies deploying AI at scale generate enormous volumes of log data, but existing platforms force organizations into uncomfortable compromises between cost and capability.
"The shift to AI represents the biggest transformation in computing infrastructure requirements ever, but even pre-AI, logging solutions have not kept pace," said Noel Ruane, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Bronto. "Organisations continue to be forced into painful tradeoffs: pay astronomical bills for 'just-adequate' retention, or delete critical data needed for debugging, security, and compliance. And now, in an agentic world—where intelligence meets data—maintaining all of your log data has never been more critical for companies to leverage and reap the real benefits of AI."
Bronto's platform removes the distinction between hot and historic log data. Companies can access all their logs without sacrificing volume or breaking their budgets.
Bronto is using the seed proceeds to build what it calls a world-leading go-to-market function while continuing to expand its engineering team. The company operates from Dublin with presence on both US coasts and follows a people-first, location-second hiring approach.
The platform promises low latency, large-scale operations, and long-term retention at a fraction of traditional costs. It also opens new use cases by combining AI capabilities with logging expertise, reducing the operational burden that users experience with existing solutions.
"Our goal is to be the world's number 1 logging platform for all users and use cases," Ruane added. "And with Cercano and Heavybit, we believe we have selected the perfect combination of breath and depth in our first capital partners to help us achieve that goal."
Noel Ruane and Trevor Parsons bring serious credentials to Bronto. Ruane co-founded Voysis, a voice-AI platform that Apple acquired in 2020, and led eCommerce analytics company Profitero, which Publicis bought in 2022. He also founded Conviction Capital and established Dublin's Dogpatch Labs co-working space in 2011.
Parsons has over two decades of experience building log management solutions. He co-founded LogEntries, one of the first cloud-based log management platforms, which Rapid7 acquired in 2015. After the acquisition, he led the log search team at Rapid7, where LogEntries technology operated at petabyte scale as part of InsightIDR.
"Logging is fundamentally broken, unfit for the volume of data the AI-era has brought, and Bronto fixes that," said Parsons. "Our team has a combined 150+ years of experience building and operating proprietary log-engines and platforms at global scale in both private, venture-backed and public companies. I don't believe you could handpick a better group of engineers than our team at Bronto. Both Noel and I couldn't be more excited to lead this incredible team."
Parsons developed distributed tracing technologies during his PhD before shifting focus to log management in his postdoctoral research. In the mid-2000s, he led the team that built an on-premises log management solution for IBM. Bronto represents his fourth generation of log management solution creation.
The investor lineup reflects confidence in both the market opportunity and the founding team's ability to execute. Cercano Management, a firm that manages over $10 billion in assets, led the round.
"We believe Bronto is well-positioned to build a category-defining company in the logging and observability market," said Lauren Glatter of Cercano Management Venture Capital. "We're thrilled to support Noel and Trevor's vision and to partner with team-Bronto through our lead investment."
Joseph Ruscio, a developer tools and infrastructure investor at Heavybit with experience as a founder and operator in observability companies, emphasized what makes Bronto different. "I've seen countless attempts to modernize log management, and they all fall short in some way—whether efficiency, scale, or usability. What Bronto has created is revolutionary and represents a true disruption in this space. Everyone at Heavybit is incredibly excited to partner with such an experienced pair of entrepreneurs already executing at this level."
Cercano Management was founded in 2022 after operating as part of a single-family office for over two decades. The firm provides investment advisory services to business owners, foundations, and related entities, with offices in Bellevue, Atlanta, Singapore, and Wayzata.
Heavybit, headquartered in San Francisco, focuses on early-stage investments in companies building AI-native solutions across infrastructure, security, and enterprise software. Established in 2013, the firm recently closed its fifth flagship pre-seed and seed fund alongside its second opportunity fund.
