AI Startup Tessl Raises $125 Million, Surpassing a $500 Million Valuation

The AI software development startup Tessl raised $124 million across two funding rounds: $25 million in a first round led by GV and boldstart in April, and $100 million in a series A led by Index with Accel participation. The company’s valuation is now above $500 million.

“We’re happy to be well-fueled for the big journey ahead, and humbled by this vote of confidence in our mission and team,” wrote Guy Podjarny, CEO and founder of Tessl in a public statement. “Software powers our digital world, and improving the tools we use to create it can have exponential effects.”

Tessl is focusing on AI Native Development and developing AI software that can write code and maintain code autonomously.

According to TechCrunch, Tessl hasn’t launched any products yet, but investors trust the talent behind the creator. Podjarny is a popular developer, entrepreneur, and researcher, co-founder of the cybersecurity firm Snyk—valued at $7.4 billion in 2022—and founder of the web performance optimization company Blaze.io, and former Chief Technology Officer at Akamai, an internet infrastructure company.

In this new venture, Podjarny—also known as Guypo, according to Fortune—thought of the impact artificial intelligence is having on software and how it could be used to assist developers beyond AI coding assistants like Copilot. He noticed weaknesses in security, efficiency, and costs in the current methods of using AI for coding, and came up with Tessl—alluding to the process of “tessellation” when space or data divides in an organized system—to avoid mess and overlapping, and build a stronger AI native platform.

“We’re starting with relatively simple software that allows us to build an end-to-end system that is more manageable for LLMs to generate, and more manageable for humans to specify. And we will evolve from there,” said Podjarny in an interview with TechCrunch.

TechCrunch confirmed with multiple sources that the London-based startup’s valuation is above $500 million and Fortune said people with knowledge of the deal said it reached a $750 million valuation.

Generative AI startup Writer recently raised $200 million to expand its services.