AI coding assistant Supermaven has raised $12 million in a seed funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from notable tech figures, including ex-OpenAI co-founder John Schulman and Perplexity co-founder Denis Yarats.
Supermaven, founded by Jacob Jackson, aims to reimagine software development with its AI-powered tools. The company plans to use the funds to develop a new text editor, designed to work seamlessly with their AI models.
"We're building an editor because with our most recent update that predicts jumps and deletions, we've reached the limit of what is possible within an editor extension," Jackson explained. The new editor will allow Supermaven to fully leverage its AI capabilities, offering features beyond what's possible with current extension-based products.
Today we're releasing the biggest update to Supermaven functionality since launch.
— Supermaven (@SupermavenAI) August 27, 2024
Supermaven now supports deleting code and jumping to different locations in your codebase. Here's a demo: pic.twitter.com/htQlA7gC8k
Supermaven's technology boasts a 1-million token context window, enabling it to understand large codebases and provide contextual code completion with low latency. The company claims its tool can suggest not only what code to write but also where to write it, a feature they call "next location prediction."
However, Supermaven is entering a fiercely competitive field dominated by well-funded startups with more mature products and larger teams. Recent developments underscore the intensity of this space: Magic raised $320 million in a Series B round, unveiling their LTM-2-mini model with a 100 million token context window, while Codeium secured $150 million in Series C funding. These moves highlight the significant resources being poured into AI-assisted coding tools, setting a high bar for newcomers like Supermaven.
The funding comes at a time when AI is increasingly seen as a force multiplier for developers. Bessemer Venture Partners views this as "dawn for developers," with AI automating tedious coding tasks and freeing up developers to focus on creativity and problem-solving.
With a small team of five engineers, Supermaven is actively used by over 40,000 developers. The company's rapid growth and innovative approach have garnered attention in the tech world, with some developers reporting that Supermaven makes them feel like they're coding at 1,000 words per minute.
As Supermaven continues to develop its technology and new text editor, the company aims to redefine the boundaries of what's possible in modern software development.