Imagine a world in which all software was programmable. A world in which the rich application ecosystems created by companies like Google (Chrome Plugins), Salesforce (AppExchange), and WordPress (Plugins) were not achievable only by building large scale engineering teams, but rather available to every software developer by default.

This vision is just one of the amazing possibilities that WebAssembly has to offer the world of software development.

WebAssembly, also known as WASM, allows web browsers to run code written in languages other than JavaScript. Developers who may prefer writing code in Rust or Python can code in their language of choice, which WASM can compile to a low-level assembly language that can run in a browser, server, or at the edge. It provides developers with the flexibility to code in their language of choice, while offering portability (run in any environment or device), speed (faster to execute than JavaScript), and security (a sandboxed environment ensures code isolation).

While some companies like Shopify and Cloudflare are already implementing WASM in creative ways, the technology remains challenging to access for the broader developer ecosystem. In part, this is because the tooling landscape to support developers building with WASM remains nascent.

That changes with Dylibso.

Dylibso builds products to help engineering teams take WASM to production. The company has released two products so far, Extism and Modsurfer.

Extism is an open source, universal plug-in system that allows any software to be extensible, fulfilling the vision of universal programmability that we laid out at the top of this blog post. Announced just last December, Extism has already reached 1800+ stars on GitHub with support for 16 languages including Python, Rust, Go, Ruby, C++, Java, Zig, and more.

Extism

Dylibso’s second product, Modsurfer, is a diagnostics application that allows seamless debugging of WASM binaries. With Modsurfer, developers can avoid the complexity of dealing with the binary on their own, and be provided with critical information on their WASM modules such as the source language, imports/exports, runtime risk, and code complexity. These insights can be used to debug and triage issues that can otherwise be challenging to identify in the opaque format of WASM binary.

Modsurfer

Extism and Modsurfer are just the beginning for Dylibso. When Shomik Ghosh at Boldstart first introduced us to Steve Manuel, we were amazed by the ambitious vision that he set forth to accelerate WebAssembly’s adoption and the exciting use cases that could emerge as a result. We share that excitement to see what innovations will arise as the power of WASM is combined with the usability enabled by Dylibso’s products.

We’re incredibly excited to be working with Dylibso’s founders Steve Manuel, Zach Shipko, and Benjamin Eckel as they help developers build the future with WASM. We’ve been investors in the company since day one, and are thrilled to be investing alongside amazing investors from Felicis, Boldstart, and Pebblebed in the company’s seed financing round.

To learn more about the company, check out their website, launch announcement, and the TechCrunch article on their fundraise.