Highlights:
- Tessl’s platform will assist developers with software maintenance in addition to software generation.
- Tessl anticipates the platform’s debut in early 2025. The business claims that it will enable users to create more complex apps than competitors’ coding assistants.
An AI-based startup, Tessl AI Ltd. raised USD 125 million in the funding round to streamline software development and maintenance.
The majority of the funding, USD 100 million, came from a recent Series A round led by Index Ventures, with Accel contributing as well. Tessl had previously raised a USD 25 million seed investment, which was co-led by Alphabet Inc.’s GV startup fund and Boldstart. The company is currently valued at USD 750 million.
Tessl, a London-based company, is working on an AI platform that will enable the development of software with prompts in natural language. The company claims that the proposal will allow users to provide a high-level specification of the application they want to develop. Customers’ specs will be automatically converted into code using Tessl’s algorithms.
Upon launch, the platform will produce Python, JavaScript, and Java code. While Python and JavaScript are frequently used for web development and artificial intelligence projects, respectively, Java powers a large number of enterprise applications. Tessl intends to support additional languages in the future.
The platform will assist developers with software maintenance in addition to software generation. Tessl claims that its algorithms will be able to automatically identify and address any performance problems that may develop in an application over time. The business also intends to provide tools for identifying cybersecurity problems.
The founder and CEO of Tessl, Guy Podjarny, was the creator of software security expert Snyk Ltd. In its most recent round of funding, the latter startup was valued at USD 7.4 billion.
Fixing security and performance problems won’t be the only software maintenance features offered by Tessl. The business claims that its AI will also be able to identify modifications to the outside elements that a software needs on to function.
Application programming interfaces, or APIs, are frequently used by enterprise programs to communicate with external services. APIs can evolve over time as the applications they support are enhanced with new features. When these changes happen, workloads dependent on the API need to be adjusted accordingly—a process Tessl aims to simplify through its platform.
Over time, the business intends to support additional use cases. Tessl claims that the goal is to give its platform the capability to gather application telemetry and examine the information to pinpoint areas in need of development. “Implementations will be customizable, refined to your specific environment based on your data, and enabling dynamic changes like prioritized speed at peak hours vs costs overnight,” added Podjarny.
Tessl anticipates the platform’s debut in early 2025. The business claims that it will enable users to create more complex apps than competitors’ coding assistants. Tessl hopes that developers will use its platform to create a range of services, such as mobile apps and websites.
The company’s financing milestone follows the announcement of a USD 500 million round by Poolside, another firm developing an AI-powered coding platform. It developed a cluster of 10,000 graphics cards made by Nvidia Corp. using the funds. Poolside will be able to train large language models that are tailored for coding jobs due to the chips.