Dev Agents Secures $56 Million Seed Funding to Build AI Agent Operating System

Dev Agents, a new artificial intelligence startup co-founded by former Stripe CTO David P. Singleton and ex-Google and Meta executive Hugo Barra, has successfully closed a $56 million seed funding round. The substantial investment aims to accelerate the development of what the company describes as an operating system for AI agents, poised to transform the landscape of software development.

The funding round was co-led by prominent venture capital firms Index Ventures and CapitalG, Alphabet Inc.'s independent growth fund. Additional participation came from Sarah Guo at Conviction Partners and a roster of angel investors, underscoring strong confidence in Dev Agents' ambitious vision to democratize AI agent creation.

David P. Singleton, who previously served as CTO of Stripe and Vice President of Engineering for Google's Android, leads Dev Agents as CEO. He is joined by Hugo Barra, the company's Chief Product Officer, known for his work at Google and as Vice President of Oculus at Meta Platforms. The founding team also includes Ficus Kirkpatrick, former Android engineer and Meta VR/AR VP, as CTO, and Nicholas Jitkoff, who worked on Chrome OS at Google, as Chief Design Officer.

Dev Agents aims to address the current fragmentation in building AI applications by providing a foundational platform for developers. As Singleton stated, "Just as Android made mobile development accessible to virtually any developer, we’re building the platform that will help make AI agents mainstream." This platform is envisioned to enable AI agents to operate autonomously, performing tasks and making decisions without constant human intervention, akin to "digital workers."

The emergence of agentic AI marks a significant shift, moving beyond simple chatbots to systems capable of processing information, executing complex tasks, and integrating various tools. This new paradigm allows computers to function more like "teammates" with humans, handling repetitive tasks and even correcting errors, thereby reducing developers' cognitive load and accelerating time-to-delivery. Sunny Dhillon, an early supporter, expressed excitement on social media, stating, "Excited to lift the curtain and share what we've been working on at Dev Agents."

Dev Agents plans to use the fresh capital to build a cloud-based operating system for trusted AI agents, fostering a new ecosystem for developers to create and deploy these advanced autonomous systems across various devices. The company's focus on a robust, accessible platform reflects a broader industry trend towards enabling AI to take on more complex, goal-oriented roles in software development and beyond.