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HyperDev, an AI software development startup with operations in South Africa and Europe, has raised more than $1 million (over R15 million) in pre-Seed funding from a network of venture capital investors from Europe and the UK.
The funding comes as the company approaches 100,000 users, less than three months after launching its AI-powered software development platform and will be used to accelerate product development and international expansion.
The pre-Seed round was backed by a network of venture capital investors from Europe and the UK, who were drawn to HyperDev’s proprietary AI technology and its access to millions of developers through the broader HyperionDev ecosystem. The startup said the fresh capital will be used to strengthen its core platform, expand its AI capabilities and support international growth as demand for AI-assisted software development continues to accelerate.
“We backed HyperDev because they combine genuine AI R&D depth with a built-in distribution channel of millions of developers. While most vibe coding tools are thin wrappers around third-party LLMs, HyperDev is building proprietary technology that makes code generation actually useful. That combination of real tech and built-in distribution is rare at any stage – at pre-seed, it’s exceptional,” said Falk Albers, MD of Reinsurance Intelligence Quotient and general partner at Loom Ventures.
HyperDev was founded by Piotr Sobolewski, a former OpenAI engineer who contributed to the technology behind ChatGPT, and Riaz Moola, who previously worked at Google on AI technologies that later became part of products such as Gemini. Moola and Sobolewski created the platform after observing that existing AI coding tools often helped users start projects but struggled to support them through production-ready deployment.
“Every AI coding tool on the market was built on the assumption that generating code was the hard part. We built HyperDev because we knew the hard part was what came after, and nobody else seems to be solving that,” said Sobolewski, co-founder and CTO of HyperDev.
“The startup differentiates itself through a proprietary feature called Guided Mode, designed to help users transform AI-generated code into deployable software. “AI app builders are seeing high user churn, so retention is the metric that matters most. Since the launch of Guided Mode, we’ve seen a near doubling in the retention rate of users,” said Kenne Loubser, Chief Marketing Officer at HyperDev.
Rather than simply producing code snippets, the platform guides developers through debugging, refinement and deployment, while also enabling non-technical users to bring certified developers into projects when additional expertise is required. According to the company, the platform is already being used to build mobile applications, e-commerce stores, FinTech products, personal websites and EdTech solutions across 14 countries.
The company says its rapid adoption validates its focus on improving software deployment rather than simply accelerating code generation. With over $1 million in funding, the company says its long-term ambition is to give developers complete control over AI-generated software while removing common barriers such as usage caps, inflexible technology stacks and complex deployment workflows.
