The founder of Snyk has raised $125m after completing a series A funding round for a new AI software development platform.

Guy Podjarny, who founded London-based cybersecurity firm Snyk in 2015 and saw it hit a $7bn valuation in 2022, has built London-based AI firm Tessl to “reimagine software creation from the ground up.”

“We’re creating a new paradigm where humans express what they want to build, and AI handles the implementation,” Podjarny said.

“Developers remain in control, but Tessl frees them up from writing, debugging and maintaining every line of code. The creation process becomes more about understanding customer pain points and user needs, problem-solving and system design – and the end result is better software for everyone.”

The funding, which comprises a $25m seed round led by boldstart ventures and GV earlier this year, and a subsequent $100m series A round led by Index Ventures, is understood to value Tessl at as much as $750m.

Tessl opens the waitlist for its platform today and will launch in early 2025. The new funding will allow Tessl to build out the platform and accelerate hiring in AI research, engineering, product, design, and developer relations.

Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Peter Kyle said: “The UK is one of the best places to invest in tech and AI as shown by this latest announcement. Today we’re seeing investors going faster and further to support brilliant British AI expertise.

“Tessl represents the cutting edge of AI innovation, transforming approaches to software use and design to deliver services which are fit for the future and ready to scale up in our online digital economy.”

Podjarny added: “We’re bringing together the world’s leading AI team to redefine how software is built. To achieve this, we need to attract the smartest and most ambitious AI talent—and in my view, there’s no better place for an early-stage startup to do that than the UK.”

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