"Gumloop, created in a Vancouver bedroom, allows users to automate tasks using drag-and-drop modules."
Gumloop, a company made up of four people dedicated to creating a workflow automation platform through a drag-and-drop system, has successfully raised $17 million in venture capital funding.
Max Brodeur-Urbas and Rahul Behal, software developers, believe that artificial intelligence (AI) has significant potential to automate tasks relevant to businesses. However, they criticize that many current AI-based automation tools are unreliable and expensive. One factor contributing to this problem is that users often have overly high expectations of what AI can achieve. According to Brodeur-Urbas, it is common for users to assume that AI can handle very specialized workloads where precision is essential. In his view, to use AI in business environments, the technology must operate with a zero-margin of error.
Brodeur-Urbas also warned that fully relying on AI for certain workflows is unrealistic, as it could end up performing the same Google search without yielding useful results. Despite these limitations, the founders believe that AI can have more specific and valuable applications. This led them to develop a wrapper for the open-source Auto-GPT application, which evolved from a prototype into their startup, Gumloop.
Gumloop focuses on automating repetitive workflows using AI, aiming to streamline basic tasks. They started their project in a dorm room in Vancouver, stemming from the need to solve a simple problem for a group of non-technical individuals on a Discord server, which eventually grew beyond their initial expectations.
The Gumloop platform includes a workflow builder that can integrate with third-party applications and tools such as GitHub, Gmail, Outlook, and X. Users can drag modular components onto a canvas to create automations or choose from pre-built pipelines for tasks like generating daily stock reports and summarizing documents.
Brodeur-Urbas mentioned that teams at companies like Instacart and Rippling are using Gumloop for various use cases. According to him, thousands of users have adopted Gumloop as an essential tool for their businesses, helping non-technical individuals solve problems without relying on engineers.
In an already saturated market of automation tools, including Parabola, Tines, Induced AI, and Nanonets, Gumloop plans to stay agile by limiting its team to 10 people. Brodeur-Urbas stated that the use of AI in coding has allowed them to achieve the productivity of a 20-person team and outpace their competitors, with a vision of becoming a billion-dollar company.
Recently, Gumloop closed a Series A funding round of $17 million, led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from First Round Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors, including Max Mullen, co-founder of Instacart, and Reynold Xin, co-founder of Databricks. To date, Gumloop has raised a total of $20 million. Brodeur-Urbas emphasized that the goal is not just to raise money, but to create a product that is genuinely valued by users, and that the new funds will help accelerate its development and scalability.
