Kilo Code has raised $8 million in seed funding as investors continue to bet on AI tools that speed up software development. The round includes participation from Breakers, Cota Capital, General Catalyst, Quiet Capital, and Tokyo Black. The startup stands out in the increasingly competitive vibe-coding space due to the involvement of GitLab co-founder and former CEO Sid Sijbrandij, who seeded the company and remains actively engaged while serving as GitLab’s board chair.
Vibe coding, a term adopted across Silicon Valley, refers to using large language models that can write and update code autonomously. Major players have signaled its rapid adoption: Microsoft says AI already contributes to 30 percent of its source code, and multiple high-value startups including Windsurf and Cursor have drawn significant acquisition and funding interest.
Kilo Code integrates with developer tools such as Cursor and Visual Studio Code, and is heavily used via OpenRouter’s API, processing more than 3 trillion tokens last month. Early adopters cite strong support for multiple AI models and an active open-source community. The company also plans to broaden appeal to less technical users through new app-builder capabilities.
As competition intensifies, other coding-focused AI solutions are expanding as well. Mistral recently introduced Devstral 2 and its context-aware Vibe CLI for code automation, while Anthropic is embedding Claude Code into enterprise workflows through a partnership with Accenture. The category is even extending to no-code creation, with platforms like Empromptu enabling business users to build AI applications without writing software.
