Vercel, a US software platform, has acquired an Ethiopian-founded cybersecurity startup, Better Auth, for an undisclosed sum. Founder Bereket Engida will join Vercel along with Better Auth’s core team, an announcement from Vercel revealed.
Engida, a self-taught developer, founded Better Auth in 2024 as an open-source authentication and authorisation framework. The startup’s success earned it a place in Y Combinator in 2025 and $5.5 million in seed funding from investors including Peak XV Partners and Africa-focused P1 Ventures. It also acquired Auth.js the same year.
The global AI agents market is predicted to expand to over $294 billion by 2035. Gartner projects that agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention by 2029. Engida described the acquisition as a natural next step as the pace of AI change made the challenge posed by AI agents impossible to ignore.
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Last updated: July 9, 2026
