SoftBank Latin America Fund sponsored a $2.3 million fundraising round for Abstra, which has built a no-code solution for designers and programmers to build professional apps. Bruno Vieira Costa formed Abstra, situated in Rio de Janeiro, in March of 2020. Costa graduated from college in 2018 and has already completed one startup sale.
The serial entrepreneur, who claims to have been programming since the age of seven, previously co-founded and served as CTO of PaperX, an edtech business. When Costa was 23, the firm sold to the bigger, venture-backed edtech Descomplica. Prior to college, he co-founded Sinextra, a game firm that “had some large Brazilian customers,” according to him.
His objective with Abstra is simple: to make it easier for anyone to create apps without having to know how to code. According to Costa, it is especially beneficial for agencies that want to offer faster results or non-technical departments that need to iterate faster yet rely on centralized engineering teams to implement everything. Designers and beginner programmers can create great websites and applications “far faster than senior developers in larger firms” with Abstra, according to Costa. He went on to say, “We provide easy customization without the UI constraints that no-code applications often have.”
Despite the fact that no-code is meant to be simple, Costa argues that certain no-code solutions fail to serve designers since they require a lot of fine-tuning while requiring no coding knowledge. “Some are too technical, while others are simply putting together pre-built interfaces,” he explained. “We’re working on a technique that addresses both issues by being simple to use and adaptable.”
Abstra focuses on late-stage and early-stage technology businesses, as well as enterprise IT consulting firms. So far, the business has attracted 11 clients, including Accenture, Stone, and Descomplica, and is generating MRR (monthly recurring revenue) at a rate of 45 percent on average. Before garnering SoftBank’s attention, the firm was a part of Y Combinator’s spring 2021 group. Iporanga, Alexia Ventures, and a few angel investors have also invested in the business.
Every firm has had to “become partly digital” because of the COVID-19 epidemic. “The need for software creation surged,” Costa told TechCrunch. “However, there aren’t enough developers available.” As a result, no-code was quite helpful in this case.” Costa had a friend who worked at Accenture, a consulting giant with over $50 billion in sales in 2021, and the fledgling startup is given the opportunity to pitch them.
Costa told TechCrunch, “I gave them our prior customer outcomes and a product presentation, and they chose to do a pilot at that same meeting.” “They’ve become one of our most frequent visitors. Using solutions like ours makes them considerably more competitive as an enterprise consulting business.” According to Patrick Arippol of Alexia Ventures, the “no and low code opportunity set is in its early days,” according to TechCrunch.
“Based on early client feedback and the product’s design and underlying premises,” he stated in an email, “Abstra’s original product showed considerable promise and potential on a worldwide level.” The business intends to utilize the funds to expand its existing nine-person team, notably in the areas of engineering, marketing, sales, and operations.
