Unleashing Creativity and Productivity: The Next Frontier in Software Development with Augment

By Dror Berman & Davis Treybig

As lifelong technologists and investors, we've always been captivated by the magic of software creation—the ability to conjure entire universes from lines of code and breathe life into static screens. It's a passion that has led us to witness firsthand the transformative power of technology and the incredible innovations that emerge when you put the right tools in the hands of creative, ambitious people.

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Innovation Endeavors is co-leading a $227 million Series A investment in Augment, a company that is revolutionizing software development by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. We believe Augment is poised to unlock a new era of productivity and creativity for the world's 30 million developers while also democratizing access to software creation for billions of people.

Software engineering is the most labor-constrained market in the world, with a mere 30 million developers serving as the foundation for the countless ways software transforms our lives. Yet, we have only scratched the surface of what can be built. As we've seen in recent years, software is a perfect match for the capabilities of large language models, with abundant training data and built-in verification mechanisms like compilers and runtime execution.

This combination of factors has fueled the rapid adoption of AI coding tools, with nearly 92% of developers now leveraging them in some form. Github Copilot alone is nearing $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, and multiple studies have demonstrated substantial productivity gains. However, we believe we're still in the early innings of understanding AI's full impact on software engineering.

After more than a year of evaluating AI-assisted software engineering tools, we believe a winning company in this space will be built on three key principles:

1. Full vertical integration, owning everything from GPU infrastructure and models to the application layer.
2. A marriage of world-class ML research talent, exceptional systems engineering, and a focus on productization.
3. A crawl-walk-run approach to sophisticated AI workflows, steadily increasing the scope and complexity of what an AI system can do over time.

When we met the Augment team, we knew we had found a company that embodied these principles. Augment's mission is to empower software engineering teams with AI, and their first product—a best-in-class copilot—showcases their technical prowess. With nearly one-fifth of the inference latency of alternatives and the ability to retrieve against your entire codebase, Augment delivers a snappier, more responsive user experience with fewer hallucinations and better code reuse.

Under the hood, Augment has done immense work at every layer of the stack, from a custom serving engine and vector index to insights in data preprocessing and extensive work in static analysis and compilers. Equally impressive is Augment's veteran team, led by CTO Igor Ostrovsky, former Chief Architect at Pure Storage, Guy Gur-Ari, a renowned AI researcher from Google, and Scott Dietzen, former CEO of Pure Storage.

We believe Augment's technology and team position them to lead a decade of innovation in AI-powered software engineering. In the next five years, we envision:

1. AI copilots executing complex, multi-step workflows—writing code, reviewing it, critiquing themselves, using various tools, and iterating until something works.
2. Software teams leveraging an infinite army of junior "AI engineers" to autonomously develop features, review code, and handle procedural tasks.
3. Non-technical individuals tasking AI systems to create custom applications for simpler programming tasks, democratizing access to software creation.

This future isn't just about incremental improvements in productivity; it's about fundamentally reimagining who can create software and what they can build. It's about breaking down barriers and unleashing a wave of creativity and innovation that has the power to transform industries and solve global challenges.

As we embark on this exciting journey with Augment, we’re inspired by the possibilities that lie ahead. By making software creation more intuitive, accessible, and deeply human, Augment is paving the way for a future where the only limit to what we can build is the scope of our own imagination.

To our fellow dreamers, builders, and believers in the transformative power of technology—join us on this thrilling adventure. Sign up for Augment's early access program and experience firsthand the magic of AI-powered software engineering.

Together, let's unleash our collective creativity and shape a future where software empowers everyone to bring their boldest visions to life.

Onward!

Dror and Davis