ClearRoute launches runkora as global expansion accelerates

Platform engineering consultancy ClearRoute has launched its open-source agentic AI platform runkora, giving developers access to technology designed to help enterprises manage AI agents, while also creating new opportunities for the company to expand.

The launch took place at PlatformCon Sydney, attracting more than 400 paid registrations and 500 attendees.

The company decided to release runkora to the developer community for free rather than immediately commercialise the technology, with the aim of encouraging adoption and creating opportunities to help enterprises deploy AI agents at scale, said ClearRoute CEO, James Jarvis.

"We're a specialist consulting firm who built something we're really proud of," Jarvis said.

"Let's just give it to the community for free, and let them play with it."

This reflects ClearRoute's growth strategy, combining specialist platform engineering expertise with its developing AI capabilities and partnerships.

Founded four years ago, the company now employs over 200 staff and operates across Australia, the UK and the US, with additional engineering centres in India and Bulgaria.

ClearRoute is experiencing its strongest period of growth since its establishment, with runkora representing another opportunity to expand its customer base.

Open-source strategy targets enterprise AI

ClearRoute has developed three iterations of runkora, with the latest version its go-to-market release.

They had considered commercialising the platform directly, but ultimately favoured making it freely available to encourage experimentation and adoption.

The longer-term opportunity is to work with large organisations seeking to introduce AI agents into their engineering operations.

"Hopefully, a financial services company or mining company will come along and say, 'We really love runkora. We want to deploy that at scale - now - and we want to have loads of agents. Can you come and help us?'" he said.

The approach also aligns with its focus on complex enterprise environments, where organisations need to integrate new technologies into existing systems, while maintaining appropriate operational controls.

Rather than positioning itself as a product vendor, ClearRoute intends to use runkora to strengthen its consulting offering and give its engineers scope to work on more advanced technology projects.

The response to the launch has been encouraging, with plenty of activity at its exhibition stand to learn about ClearRoute and runkora.

A workshop with capacity for approximately 70 people also attracted more than 120 attendees, highlighting interest in platform engineering and agentic AI.

Specialist platform engineering focus

ClearRoute was founded by a group of colleagues who worked at a digital engineering company that was subsequently sold to GlobalLogic, which is part of Hitachi.

It was established four years ago, initially building on existing relationships and expertise in software engineering.

Its early growth accelerated after securing major clients, including a large UK energy infrastructure provider.

Another significant opportunity emerged when a former client, who became CIO at one of Australia's big four banks, approached the team for help with a DevSecOps program that was not delivering the expected results.

A team was sent to Australia to investigate the organisation's engineering processes, examining how software moved from initial development through testing, approvals and eventual production.

The work involved mapping the different stages of software delivery, identifying bottlenecks and determining which capabilities organisations needed to improve.

This reinforced the company's Australian presence, which has since developed into a significant part of its international operations.

ClearRoute grew its relationship with the client to mid-seven figures in annual revenue before establishing a local office and team.

Their focus on platform engineering has also become a key differentiator.

While larger technology consultancies offer services across multiple disciplines, ClearRoute concentrates specifically on platform engineering, helping organisations improve the systems, processes and infrastructure used to build and deploy software.

Frontier AI partnership fuelling growth

Jarvis said ClearRoute is also expanding its AI capabilities through a partnership with Anthropic, the developer of Claude.

A decision was made internally to concentrate on Anthropic, instead of attempting to establish partnerships across multiple AI providers.

They subsequently met the requirements to become an approved Anthropic partner in October.

The partnership complements the development of runkora and its investment in engineers trained to work with Anthropic's technology.

ClearRoute now has specialist AI engineers who work directly with enterprise customers and have been certified in Claude Code.

The combination of AI expertise, platform engineering and experience working with large enterprises is central to the company's growth strategy.

ClearRoute concentrates on large organisations, including those operating in regulated industries, where the adoption of new technology can involve additional operational and governance requirements.

The rapid expansion of the AI market is creating opportunities for specialist consultancies able to help businesses move beyond experimentation and implement technology in production environments.

Jarvis compared the current opportunity with the early development of the cloud computing market, recalling the large number of companies that sought partnerships with AWS when it was expanding.

The level of interest in Anthropic's partner programme has been substantially greater, he said, with approximately 10,000 companies participating in the partner call he attended.

Global expansion continuing

ClearRoute currently operates across Australia, London and the US, with its American business primarily focused on New York.

Its engineering operations include teams in Australia, Pune in India, Bulgaria and the UK.

They are continuing to pursue growth across these markets, with Jarvis describing the current period as the most exciting stage of his career.

ClearRoute was recently selected in a list of the UK's 50 most ambitious companies, from 650 nominated businesses. For Jarvis, the company's growth is driven by both solving customer problems and creating opportunities for its employees.

Looking ahead, Jarvis believes ClearRoute has an opportunity to play a role in the broader transformation taking place as large enterprises increasingly adopt AI at scale.

"It's like there's a poker table, and we're at the far end with not the greatest hand, but we are at the table," Jarvis said.

"It drives me a lot to think that we could play a small part in this huge global transformation that we're on."

With runkora now available to the developer community and its Anthropic partnership providing another avenue for growth, the company is seeking to turn its specialist engineering expertise into new enterprise opportunities.