Wordware raises $30 million to make AI development as easy as writing a document

November 21, 2024 6:00 AM

Filip Kozera, right, and Robert Chandler, left, the co-founders of Wordware, which recently raised $30 million to simplify AI development. (Credit: Wordware)

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A San Francisco startup wants to make artificial intelligence development as easy as writing in a word processor. Wordware announced today a $30 million seed round led by Spark Capital, marking one of Y Combinator’s largest initial investments to date.

The company has built what it calls a full-stack operating system for AI development, enabling users to create sophisticated AI agents using natural language instead of traditional programming code. With hundreds of thousands of users already on its platform, including enterprise customers like Instacart and Runway, Wordware is betting that the future of AI development belongs to domain experts rather than traditional software engineers.

How natural language could replace traditional programming for AI

“We are not a code-gen application,” Filip Kozera, co-founder and CEO of Wordware, told VentureBeat, distinguishing his company’s approach from other no-code tools. “We believe we’re witnessing a paradigm shift, and AI agents represent a new kind of software. Rather than focusing on code-gen, we’ve chosen to prioritize AI agents because we believe they will play a central role in driving the economy and automation in the future.”

The company’s emergence comes at a critical moment in enterprise technology. Current workplace statistics suggest that 81% of workers spend less than 3 hours daily on creative work, with inefficiencies in meaningful work costing the global economy $8.9 trillion annually. Traditional AI development requires scarce and expensive engineering talent, creating a bottleneck for companies trying to implement AI solutions.

Kozera draws an ambitious parallel to Microsoft Excel’s impact on data analytics: “Excel has 750 million monthly active users. What they’ve done to data analytics back in the 80s, we are trying to do to AI.”

Why enterprise leaders are building AI without engineering teams

The platform is already seeing adoption from major companies. “The C-suite executive comes in, spends couple days iterating on their AI agent, and then outputs an API and puts it into production,” Kozera explained. He cites an example where an Instacart founder “locked himself in his office and produced a new feature for their app” in just four days without hiring AI engineers.

Another customer, Metadata, uses Wordware to build AI systems that optimize advertising spend. Kozera described how their AI agent works: “The agent takes a query from the customer, such as, ‘If I wanted to sell XYZ product in Brazil with this budget, how should I [allocate] my resources?’ It then writes code, queries multiple databases in real time, and generates a detailed report—all in under a minute.”

The battle to become the operating system for AI development

Despite competition from tech giants like Microsoft, Wordware is betting on its ability to move faster. “When I think about competition, I don’t necessarily worry about other startups in the space, but Microsoft is one of the players that has secured access to multiple model providers,” Kozera said. “The answer here is, as always when a startup is competing against a larger incumbent: delivery, the fact that we can take risks where they cannot.”

“You have to be a little delusional in order to think that you can rebuild the whole development ecosystem that has been in the works for last 30 years for software,” he added. “This is what we’re trying to do.”

Unlike typical no-code platforms, Wordware maintains a balance between accessibility and power. “Because we approached it in a way that we don’t want to have a graduation problem, it is not as simple as most no-code tools,” Kozera explained. “It does employ some programming concepts, and this is the price we pay in order to have the ability to build actually serious infrastructure.”

The platform includes features like reflection loops for self-checking AI agents, comprehensive evaluation frameworks, and a GitHub-like repository system for sharing and customizing solutions. These capabilities have attracted significant attention from enterprise customers looking to accelerate their AI initiatives without building large specialized teams.

Looking ahead, Wordware plans to expand its reach in early 2025 by enabling individual users to automate personal workflows using its engine. The company is actively hiring and building what Kozera describes as a unique company culture focused on transforming the AI development landscape.

The $30 million investment, which includes participation from Felicis, Y-Combinator, Day One Ventures, and notable angels such as Paul Graham and Webflow’s Vlad Magdalin, suggests growing confidence in tools that bridge the gap between technical and non-technical users in AI development. As organizations increasingly seek to implement AI solutions, Wordware’s approach could reshape how enterprises approach AI implementation in the coming years.

“In the space of next year, we want to build the best factory for building the AI engine,” Kozera said. “There is a potential to build a multi-trillion dollar company in the space of AI development — It’s going to be a battle, but it’s a battle I want to fight.”

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