In mid-2023, Max Brodeur-Urbas co-founded Gumloop with the aim of enabling non-technical staff to automate repetitive tasks using AI. At the time, AI agents were mostly experimental and error-prone.
As AI technology improved, so did Gumloop’s services.
Gumloop now claims to allow teams at companies like Shopify, Ramp, Gusto, Samsara, Instacart, and Opendoor to deploy dependable AI agents that autonomously manage complex, multi-step tasks without the need for an engineer.
Employees can share the agents they create with colleagues, speeding up internal automation. “They become enthusiastic, creating more agents, and soon the entire company is AI-native,” Brodeur-Urbas told TechCrunch.
As the adoption of AI accelerates, Benchmark general partner Everett Randle believes success depends on equipping every worker with AI capabilities, and Gumloop’s user-friendly agent-builder exemplifies tools that will unlock that potential.
This belief led Randle, who joined Benchmark from Kleiner Perkins last October, to spearhead a $50 million Series B investment in Gumloop. The round included participation from Nexus VP, First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Box Group, The Cannon Project, and Shopify.
Although Gumloop wasn’t actively seeking additional capital, the startup felt 2023 was the time to “accelerate.” For Brodeur-Urbas, partnering with Benchmark—a backer of giants like eBay, Uber, and Dropbox—was an obvious choice.
Brodeur-Urbas initially envisioned a ‘10-person, billion-dollar company,’ but growing enterprise demand has pushed him to build a dedicated sales force and expand the engineering team.
Gumloop is not the only company trying to turn every knowledge worker into an AI agent-builder. Competitors include automation platforms like Zapier and n8n, specialized agent builders like Dust, and AI labs like Anthropic with Claude Co-Work, which also offer agent creation without coding.
Randle, however, believes Gumloop outshines its competitors. His due diligence revealed at least one customer had adopted Gumloop naturally.
When asked how they chose Gumloop, a CTO explained that employees had access to Gumloop and two competing tools. Six months later, Gumloop was the daily or weekly choice over its rivals, Randle shared with TechCrunch.
Gumloop gained momentum due to its minimal learning curve. “You can start creating agents and workflow automations right away,” Randle said.
While foundational AI models threaten some startups, Randle believes Gumloop’s model-independent approach will continue to draw customers.
As models evolve, one might outperform another for specific tasks, and Gumloop offers the flexibility to select the best-suited model.
Model independence also reduces cost, said Randle. “Many enterprises have credits with OpenAI, Gemini, and Anthropic. They want to use all of them.”
Ultimately, Randle is excited by the immense potential in enterprise automation. “Enterprise automation is a huge opportunity,” he stated. “I think it’s the largest category in enterprise AI.”