Builder.ai

On the evening of May 20, 2025, hundreds of Builder.ai employees around the world joined a remote town hall, Rest of World reported. Manpreet Ratia, chief executive since early in the year, told them the company had run out of money, was filing for bankruptcy and was letting all of them go.

"We all lost our jobs within 30 mins," one former product manager told the site.

Builder.ai was founded in 2016 by Sachin Dev Duggal, whose title in company releases was "Chief Wizard and Founder." It promised software assembled largely by an AI called Natasha. In 2019 The Wall Street Journal reported, citing former employees, that the work was mostly done by human engineers; the company replied that it had never said it used AI to assemble code.

In March 2022 it raised a $100 million Series C led by Insight Partners. In May 2023 Microsoft made an undisclosed investment, and a Series D of more than $250 million led by the Qatar Investment Authority took total funding past $450 million. Outlets put the valuation at $1.5 billion.

In 2024 the company borrowed $50 million from Viola Credit, and Viola registered security over listed assets of the UK company that October. Duggal resigned as a director on March 11, 2025. On March 31 Bloomberg reported that the company had cut its second-half 2024 revenue estimates by about 25%. "It's probably time to sit back and take pause," Ratia told Bloomberg. "We need to do a little bit of work making sure we get our house in order."

Lenders had been told to expect 2024 sales of about $220 million, the Financial Times reported in May 2025; the audited figure was about $55 million. The lenders, led by Viola, declared a default and seized the cash in the company's accounts, about $37 million, Bloomberg reported. "Despite the tireless efforts of our current team and exploring every possible option, the business has been unable to recover from historic challenges and past decisions that placed significant strain on its financial position," the company said on May 20.

The American parent filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in Delaware on June 2, 2025, listing liabilities of up to $100 million against assets of less than $10 million. The creditors included Amazon and Microsoft. A London court wound up the British operating company that September on a creditor's petition. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan subpoenaed the former chief financial officer, who is not a target, Bloomberg reported in October.

"I'm proud of the team who dared to build a bold ambition," Duggal said, MoneyWeek reported. "Every success was theirs; the failures were mine."

Sources for this story