AI Startup Create Raises $8.5 Million to Build App-Building AI Agent

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Create has raised $8.5 million to scale its flagship product, Anything, an AI coding agent that can produce mobile and web apps ready for app stores.

The Series A funding round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Shopify founder Tobi Lütke and other angel investors, following a $3 million pre-seed round, Create said in a Thursday (Aug. 14) press release emailed to PYMNTS.

The raise comes on the heels of the tool’s public debut on Aug. 7, which generated 3.2 million views in 72 hours and added more than 30,000 new users, pushing Create’s total registered base to 500,000. Paid subscriptions tripled overnight, and the startup is approaching $1 million in annual recurring revenue.

David Cowan, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, said in the release that other tools offer AI-generated code, but “Anything delivers a complete solution that’s actually changing who can build software.”

Anything targets both developers and non-technical users, offering one-click submission to the Apple App Store and Google Play alongside web app deployment. It includes hosting, databases, back-end services, payment processing and design templates.

“The vibe coding space is exploding, but everyone hits the same wall with AI coding tools — amazing demo, dead end,” said Dhruv Amin, Create’s co-founder and CEO, in the release. “We’re the first to ship beautiful mobile apps straight to the App Store. … Just describe what you want and it works.”

Tools like Anything have the potential to supercharge the business of SMBs. According to a June PYMNTS Intelligence report, software is rapidly evolving from a back-end utility to a vital growth engine, driving profitability, financial strategy and customer engagement.

As a result, companies are planning to increase their investments in software to unlock new revenue streams and accelerate scaling, according to the report, “Platform Power: The Growing Importance of Embedded Finance to SMB Success.”

PYMNTS also noted on Monday (Aug. 11) how other AI companies are catering to a growing demand for vibe coding.

Coined by OpenAI Co-founder Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding refers to the writing of computer programs without knowing programming languages, PYMNTS reported. Instead, users use plain language to describe the project.

The development of such technology is enabling people from all walks of life to bring their projects to life.

Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, a coding platform, said in an interview with the Big Technology Podcast that anyone can now develop apps based on their ideas.

“Everyone in the world has ideas,” Masad said during the interview. “People build so much domain knowledge about their field of work, but they never could make it into software because they didn’t have the skill or capital.”