Why Microsoft Invested in Sachin Dev Duggal’s Builder.AI
May 23, 2023
Builder.AI announced today that it raised $250 million in a new investment round. The round brings the London based company’s total funding to more than $450 million. It was led by the Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf nation’s sovereign wealth fund with $450 billion in assets.
While Builder’s valuation in today’s round was not disclosed, the value was nearly double that at which Microsoft invested in the company earlier this month.
On May 10, Microsoft made an undisclosed equity investment in Builder along with announcing a strategic collaboration. “We are ecstatic that the world’s largest software company (with a market value of $2.4 trillion) chose Builder.ai as a collaborator to lay down deeper roots in helping the next 100m businesses and beyond become digitally native.” Sachin Dev Duggal, founder of Builder said in a statement. Builder was formerly known as Engineer.AI. Duggal, 40-years-old, titles himself as Builder’s Chief Wizard.
Builder’s mission, says Duggal in a blog post, “is to make it easy for you to build the software you need. Everyone should be able to do it – doesn’t matter what your background, tech knowledge or budget is.”
An example of individual use is Psychiatrist Hassan Yasin’s creation of an app for mental health. The app lets people share how they feel and Builder’s algorithm helps them improve their mood by “Crowdsourcing positivity”.
Fast growing retailer Siam Makro, which has a market value of $9 billion, used Builder to set up a new order management system, which was 98% cheaper than its previous software.
In the media business, Builder created a mobile app for BBC Click, the British network’s technology show, to make it easy for people to sign up for events and interact – for instance take part in polls – during a live show.
Builder says that four out of five software development projects fail, wasting a total of more than $3 trillion. Also, several apps have the same features such as Sign In pages and Checkout buttons. Clients spend funds and time getting software developers to code these components from scratch for each project.
Duggal’s team figured out how to create code blocks for the common features so they could fit together like Lego blocks. Then, using AI, Builder picks designers and developers for a client’s particular project, from a pool of 85,000 freelancers across the world. Thus, Duggal says in a blog, Builder saves a client both money and time, “by automating the tedious bits of app building – and using your budget and timeline on the unique bits of your idea.”
Builder says its platform enables anyone with an idea to build a web or mobile app twice as fast and up to 60% cheaper than traditional software development. The apps have “almost zero failure rate,” Builder states.
In 2019, claims by Builder – then known as Engineer.AI – about speed and low costs was questioned, including by The Wall Street Journal. “Several current and former employees say the company exaggerates its AI capabilities to attract customers and investors,” the Journal reported.
Builder has more than 1,000 employees, with offices in Delhi, Singapore, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Sophia Antipolis and Dubai.
Like Builder, Microsoft offers its own range of no-code app development tools. Microsoft, which launched a Chat GPT enabled Bing search engine in February, faces intense competition in AI-related services from Alphabet, parent of Google, Meta, parent of Facebook, and other major companies.
As part of its collaboration with Microsoft, Builder’s platform will be integrated into Microsoft’s cloud based Azure OpenAI Service, other Azure Cognitive Services and within the Microsoft Teams store bringing new customers for Builder.
The collaboration will create solutions, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), “that empower businesses to develop applications and become digitally native without the need for any technical expertise,” according to a statement issued by Builder.
Duggal, who wanted to be a singer, co-founded Builder in 2013 with Saurabh Dhoot. Earlier Dhoot was founder - and executive chairman - of Videocon D2H, based near Delhi, which offers direct to home TV channels in India.
In 2012, Duggal was a co-founder of San Francisco based Shoto, a platform to discover unseen photos you and your friends have taken from times you were together. His roles at the startup, where he stayed till 2017, included overseeing product, analytics & design, marketing, user acquisition and engineering.
Earlier in 2004, Duggal founded nivio in London, seeking to reinvent computing by providing a virtual windows desktop computer streamed over the internet to any internet connective device, with applications on demand sold on a rental basis, including monthly rentals. His roles, according to his LinkedIn profile, included making tea to public relations, marketing, investor relations, sales, and engineering.
From 2000 to 2006, Duggal worked as an advisor and consultant for Deutsche Bank. While at the bank, Duggal earned a B.Eng. in Information Systems from Imperial College, London, 2002-2006. He was on the executive committee of the Indian Society on campus. Dhoot, Builder’s co-founder, was a fellow student at Imperial College.
While working on his startups, Duggal earned an Entrepreneurial Masters’ Program, 2008-2011, jointly run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship Organization.
Speaking about the collaboration with Microsoft, Duggal said in a statement, most customers add more features as they become more successful, “making us the centre of their digital universe. Successful customers…want our collaboration with Microsoft to be an integral part of this journey of digital growth for all our customers.”
Builder seeks to empower users “to unlock their human potential,” Duggal said in a statement in connection with today’s investment round. “We are entering an incredible time in history where the very notion of software is changing; from something that had a shelf life of years to what will eventually have a shelf life of a conversation…”
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