Poolside, a San Francisco-based startup specializing in AI for software development, has raised $500 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures and included participation from major tech firms such as eBay, Nvidia, and others. The company was founded in April 2023 by Jason Warner, former CTO at GitHub, and Eiso Kant, founder of source{d}, the world’s first AI-on-Code company.
Poolside aims to provide AI-driven tools for software development, with its foundational model, Reinforcement Learning from Code Execution Feedback (RLCEF), offering companies a secure, customizable AI solution that continuously learns from user interactions. The newly raised capital has enabled Poolside to operationalize 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs, support an aggressive go-to-market strategy, and expand its applied research and engineering teams. The company’s first product will be an intelligent code assistant designed to help developers accelerate their coding and shipping capabilities.
Poolside secures substantial Series B funding
Poolside’s co-founder Eiso Kant stated, “There are, roughly, over 100 million developers worldwide, and our view is they are going to become increasingly AI-assisted.” The startup aims to target enterprise customers with 5,000 engineers or more, although the company has not provided a timeline for a broader release of its technology. Despite a cooling in public markets regarding AI’s potential for immediate payoffs, investor interest in AI startups remains strong.
The market for coding assistants is expanding rapidly, with Microsoft Corp.’s release of a Copilot for developers and similar products being developed by other venture-backed startups such as Cognition AI and France’s Mistral. Poolside opted to develop its own language model to maintain control over its long-term business model, according to Chief Executive Officer Jason Warner. The company, employing about 60 people, is headquartered in the US and gathers its European staff monthly in Paris.
The latest funding brings Poolside’s total raised to $626 million, with the company’s valuation now estimated at $3 billion. The Series B round also saw investments from LG Technology Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Citi Ventures, Capital One Ventures, HSBC Ventures, DST Global, StepStone Group, Schroders Capital, Premji Invest, Dorsal Capital, BAM Elevate, Adams Street, and Fin Capital.
