8090 Labs raises $135 million for AI coding agent

On Monday, the artificial intelligence startup 8090 Labs announced that it has secured $135 million in a Series A funding round. The investment round was led by Salesforce Ventures, which serves as the corporate venture capital arm of Salesforce. Alongside the capital raise, Chamath Palihapitiya, who founded the company, announced that he will step into the role of chief executive officer to lead the startup full-time, shifting from his previous capacity as a board member to actively run the company’s day-to-day operations.

Palihapitiya founded 8090 Labs in January 2024 to address a specific gap in how corporate programming teams write software. The startup is developing an AI coding agent—which functions as a software tool that uses artificial intelligence to assist in programming—called Software Factory. The product is designed to help corporate developers use artificial intelligence to build production-quality software rather than what are colloquially known as “vibe-coded prototypes,” a term used to describe low-quality or non-production-ready software. To meet the strict security and compliance requirements of large corporations, 8090 Labs promises that Software Factory will feature enterprise-grade controls, including comprehensive audit trails.

Palihapitiya’s decision to take on the chief executive role marks his return to a full-time operating position. Comparing the current artificial intelligence expansion to his early career as an executive at Facebook, Palihapitiya expressed that the technological shift represents a unique operational opportunity. “Since I left Facebook, I was waiting for a moment like this to return to a full-time operating role,” Palihapitiya wrote in a statement published on X. He added, “I am convinced that what we are building now is even more important, so there was no decision to make except to be all in.”

The early-stage venture capital funding round attracted a group of institutional investors and technology executives. The participating investors in the $135 million round included:

• WndrCo
• Craft Ventures
• The Production Board
• Launch
• Nikesh Arora, the chief executive officer of Palo Alto Networks, who participated as an angel investor
• Adam D’Angelo, the chief executive officer of Quora, who also joined as an angel investor

Why it matters

The investment underscores the growing enterprise demand for AI coding tools that prioritize production-grade security and auditability over simple, non-production prototypes. As large corporations seek to integrate artificial intelligence into their development pipelines, the focus is shifting from experimental tools to platforms that can support enterprise-grade controls.