Coding is growing. Be it Governments, organisations, corporates — everyone wants their people to code, or at least learn the basics of coding. Why ? Because ‘Data is the new oil’ and that oil needs folks who can use it to churn out usable stuff. And since the size of that data is humongous (and we’re just beginning), we need a lot of such folks.
Airtable does just that — letting everyone from a layman to a pro-coder code — and has secured a whooping $100 Million for its platform. This has also helped the company zoom past the $1 Billion ‘Unicorn’ mark and secure a $1.1 Billion valuation. Zooming in a serious sense, since it was last valued at $152 Million — a mere eight months ago.
So what exactly does Airtable do and more importantly, how does it do it ?
Well, to answer the former, Airtable lets non coders code. And to answer the latter, it does that by letting users interact with a much simpler interface as compared to a coding IDE (integrated development environment). This simpler interface is built on spreadsheets and other tools which are familiar to knowledge workers as a frontend to produce apps and other web-based experiences.
This latest round — a Series C — was led by Josh Kushner at Thrive Capital, Peter Fenton at Benchmark, and Philippe and Thomas Laffont at Coatue Management. Emily Weiss, Alexa Von Tobel, Delphine Arnault, Sarah Smith, Dan Rose, and previous investors CRV and Caffeinated Capital also participated. The current round takes Airtable’s cumulative raised amount to $170 Million.
The company will be using this fresh capital infusion to expand beyond the US and set up offices overseas. As of now, over 80,000 businesses are using Airtable’s platform — a massive growth spurt compared to the 30,000 it had eight months ago.
