Many startups and large tech companies are venturing into the realm of building AI agents capable of handling multi-step tasks autonomously. These agents hold the promise of revolutionizing various industries by collaborating seamlessly to complete complex jobs like travel bookings. /dev/agents, a new venture by former Google executives with a rich history in mobile development, believes a new operating system is essential to fully realize this potential.
Why a New Operating System is Needed
Just as the advent of Android transformed the mobile landscape, the current state of AI development lacks a unified platform. David Singleton, the co-founder and CEO of /dev/agents, highlights the difficulty faced by developers in building good AI applications. Before Android, building on mobile was a challenge; now, with AI, the same issue persists. /dev/agents aims to fill this gap by creating a cloud-based operating system that works across devices and presents personalized user interfaces using generative AI.Singleton's experience at Stripe and leading AndroidWear at Google gives him unique insights into the challenges developers face. With /dev/agents, he hopes to provide a unified platform that can be the operating system of the AI world.
The company's vision is to make it easier for developers to build AI agents and unlock their full potential. By offering a standardized set of tools and systems, /dev/agents aims to accelerate the development of AI applications and drive innovation in the field.
Investment and Valuation
This week, /dev/agents raised a $56 million seed round led by Index Ventures and co-led by Alphabet's CapitalG. Prominent tech leaders like OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, and Android founder Andy Rubin also participated. The deal valued the company at $500 million, indicating the market's confidence in its potential.Nina Achadjian from Index Ventures saw the opportunity and jumped at the chance to back /dev/agents. She believes it's a super difficult technical problem with a massive market opportunity. The team's experience in building Android and Stripe gives them the expertise to tackle this challenge.
Jill Chase from CapitalG emphasizes that her firm rarely invests in pre-product companies. However, when the market opportunity is generational and the team is truly exceptional, as in the case of /dev/agents, they are willing to take the risk.
Product Timeline and Business Model
/dev/agents expects to have the first version of its product available by early-to-mid next year. Regarding the business model, Singleton suggests that it will likely be similar to Android's current monetization approach. There could be opportunities for the company to take a cut of sales or charge users for subscriptions.This indicates that /dev/agents sees potential for commercial success by leveraging its operating system and enabling various transactions and services on the platform.
The company's focus on creating a unified platform and providing a seamless user experience positions it well for growth and monetization in the evolving AI landscape.
