CodeSandbox, the Amsterdam-based startup that enables teams to prototype, build and host web applications with its rapid web development platform — has today announced its $12.7 million Series A round, led by the EQT Ventures fund.
Participants in the round also include existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Arches Capital, and angel investor Guillermo Rauch. They have been joined by two new angels, Andreas Blixt and Daniel Gebler.
The startup will use the investment to launch its forthcoming team product, Pro Workspaces, and scale its remote-first development team.
The company was founded in 2017 by former Facebook developer Ives van Hoorne (CEO) and industrial designer Bas Buursma (COO), who set out to solve one of the most significant web development issues — the slow, fragmented process of building and sharing web apps.
The duo recognised that, although developers are building the future and are the driving force behind today’s companies, developer environments are getting more complex and slowing teams down.
Web development tooling has been built around programming being a solo pursuit, with individuals writing code locally. However, people rarely code by themselves and more people are now getting involved in the development process. Designers, testers, product owners and more, all want to give feedback and iterate quickly, which traditional offerings simply are not built for.
CodeSandbox’s free and collaborative sandboxes make it possible to create static sites, components and full-stack web apps within seconds. Currently more than 2.5 million people each month make use of the more than 10 million projects that have been created on the platform.
“We’re creating the best tool for product teams to collaborate and build web apps quickly,” said Ives van Hoorne, CEO and co-founder at CodeSandbox.
“Rather than trying to take a local development environment and simply put it in the Cloud, we’re building a web-first offering that’s faster, more collaborative, and easier to use. With the launch of Pro Workspaces, we’re giving developers and product teams of all sizes a purpose-built platform to collaborate on code — either to get feedback or code together on ideas. We’re thrilled to welcome EQT Ventures to our roster of backers. The EQT Ventures team’s extensive network and rich operational experience will be vital as we undertake the next stage in making prototyping with code accessible to all.”
“Ives, Bas and the CodeSandbox team are product-centric, full of energy and – frankly – born and raised online, so the ideal team to take on one of the final frontiers when it comes to shifting to the cloud,” said Ashley Lundstrӧm, deal partner and investment advisor at EQT Ventures.
“The EQT Ventures team believes CodeSandbox has got what it takes and we’re thrilled to join the team on their journey.”
CodeSandbox Pro Workspaces is currently available by invitation only and teams can join the waitlist here as more people will be added throughout Q4 2020.