Engineer.ai Scoops Up $29.5M

Engineer.ai, the human-assisted AI that empowers everyone to build and operate bespoke software, today announced at Web Summit that the company has raised one of Europe's largest Series A investments at $29.5 million, led by Lakestar and Jungle Ventures with participation from Softbank's DeepCore.

Engineer.ai's Builder is an AI-powered Software Assembly line that breaks projects into small building blocks of re-usable features that are customized by elastic human capacity from around the world; delivering high quality bespoke software at a fraction of the price and time of traditional development. Engineer.ai goes beyond just building software, providing a fully integrated service to its customers from extended warranty via BuilderCare to the CloudOps marketplace that provides access to everything the bespoke software might need (hosting, microservices, marketing, etc.).

"We created Engineer.ai so that everyone can build an idea without learning to code," said Sachin Dev Duggal, Founder and Chief Wizard of Engineer.ai. "This investment round validates our approach of making bespoke software effortless. The capital comes at a time of rapid growth and will propel the platform into the mainstream, allowing Builder to open the door for entire categories of companies that could not consider it before."

The market opportunity for Engineer.ai spans the solopreneur to small and medium businesses, providing a completely scalable way to develop software products.

"Software is the centre of every business today and the market has been waiting for a solution that eliminates technical barriers to build software so that everyone can engage in the new economy," said Manu Gupta, Partner at Lakestar. "By creating an AI powered assembly line combined with the best global human talent, Engineer.ai's Builder bridges the gap between an idea and a software product to enable it."

"The UK is known across the globe for cutting edge innovation and our world-class tech companies," International Trade Secretary Dr. Liam Fox MP said. "It is because of companies like Engineer.ai and founders like Sachin Dev Duggal, that last year the UK secured more tech venture capital investment than Germany, France, Spain and Ireland combined. My international economic department is working hard to help firms go from startup to scale-up through initiatives like the Global Entrepreneur Programme which gives guidance to budding entrepreneurs around the world. The Programme has seen 900 entrepreneurs like Sachin invest in the UK since 2005 – creating more than 5,000 high quality jobs and raising more than £1bn in venture capital."

Launched in June 2018, Engineer.ai has already attracted hundreds of customers across many geographies, from e-commerce and m-commerce platforms, to social apps, who have used Builder to create products like BBC, DiditFor, Virgin, Manscore, and ZikTruck.

"We're believers in Engineer.ai's total ecosystem; making Bespoke Software like the iPhone with aftercare and a marketplace for all recurring services; SME's don't need to go anywhere else," said Amit Anand, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Jungle Ventures. The Singapore based venture capital firm jointly led this round and is actively helping Engineer.ai expand its offerings in Emerging Asia with Singapore as a hub. "Ultimately Engineer.ai's Builder is the new SaaS; except this time, it's affordable, custom and actually delivers value to your business and its customers."

Engineer.ai has bootstrapped to $24 million in revenue. The company is set to cross the $100M revenue mark before the end of 2020.

For more information on Engineer.ai and its Builder platform, please visit https://www.engineer.ai/how-it-works.

About Engineer.ai

Led by serial entrepreneur Sachin Dev Duggal, Engineer.ai was created with the belief that everyone should be able to build their ideas without needing to code and any idea brought to life without wastage of time, money or resources.

Bootstrapped since its inception in January 2012, Engineer.ai is a global company with split headquarters in Los Angeles and London, supported by offices in Delhi and Tokyo. With over $24M in Gross Revenue, and customers that include the BBC, Virgin Group and the San Francisco Giants, Engineer.ai is reshaping how Bespoke Software is built and operated.

About Lakestar

Lakestar is one of Europe's leading venture capital firm investing in technology companies led by exceptional entrepreneurs. Early investments included Skype, Spotify, Facebook and airbnb. Since raising their last two funds with an aggregate volume of approx. EUR 500m in 2013 and 2015, Lakestar has expanded and broadened their portfolio, with more recent investments in Harry's, Opendoor,Blockchain.com, GoEuro, FiveAI and Revolut. Lakestar has presence in Berlin, Zurich and London.

Lakestar helps companies to identify new markets and expand into them rapidly, with a focus on the US and Europe. They advise and support portfolio companies in business development, recruitment, technology and marketing. The investments range from early stage companies to those in their growth stage.

About Jungle Ventures

Jungle Ventures is a Singapore based Venture Capital Firm that invests in and helps build tech category leaders from Asia. At Jungle Ventures, we strive to be the first to champion teams that have the ambition of building long-lasting, impactful companies. Our network and partnerships has empowered many bold entrepreneurs, with the help of technology, to transform humanity for the better. Jungle has a dedicated team of operating partners and functional experts to enable companies scale across growth markets in Emerging Asia.