JetBrains was founded in 2000 by Sergey Dmitriev, Valentin Kipiatkov, and Eugene Belyaev in Prague, Czech Republic. The company’s first product was IntelliJ IDEA, a Java IDE that was widely considered the best available. Google later based Android Studio on IntelliJ’s platform, bringing JetBrains’ technology to millions of mobile developers.
JetBrains’ IDE lineup covers virtually every major programming language: IntelliJ IDEA (Java/Kotlin), PyCharm (Python), WebStorm (JavaScript/TypeScript), PhpStorm (PHP), RubyMine (Ruby), GoLand (Go), CLion (C/C++), Rider (.NET), and DataGrip (databases). Each IDE shares a common platform but is tailored to its language ecosystem.
The company also created Kotlin, a programming language that Google adopted as the preferred language for Android development in 2019. Kotlin now runs on millions of Android devices and is increasingly used for server-side development, multiplatform mobile apps (Kotlin Multiplatform), and even web development.
JetBrains’ other products include TeamCity (CI/CD server), YouTrack (issue tracker), Space (team collaboration), and Datalore (data science notebooks). The company also runs the Kotlin Foundation jointly with Google.
What makes JetBrains unusual in the tech world is that it’s privately held, profitable, and has never taken venture capital. Annual revenue reportedly exceeds $500 million, generated from IDE subscriptions and enterprise tooling. The company has over 2,000 employees.
Headquartered in Prague with offices in Munich, Amsterdam, Boston, Novosibirsk, and other cities, JetBrains has built a loyal developer following through the quality of its tools. The company’s IDEs are the primary choice for professional developers in many language ecosystems.
