Anima, a YC-backed platform that converts designs into code, announced today the closing of a $10 Million Series A financing. MizMaa Ventures led the round with participation by INcapital, Hetz Ventures and others.
For a while, we have been following Anima since it was bootstrapped last year.
Startup indexes are based on several current trends, such as a bottoms up distribution strategy and the popularity low/no codes.
Here's how it works.
Developers spend a lot of time converting design elements into code. This part of the job isn't as exciting as the actual code that makes the app, website or platform work. It is a lot of work.
Designers can upload their elements or designs from Figma to Anima and they will automatically be transformed into high-quality code with support for React and Vue.js as well as HTML, CSS, and Sass. Designers can also create prototypes right in Anima. This allows the system to process both how something looks and how it should feel.
Or Arbel, Michal Cohen, and Avishay Cohen are the cofounders. (A name you might recognize from the glory days when Yo! They have a clear idea of how they will use the funding. They plan to triple the team and integrate with platforms such as Sketch, Figma, and Sketch. Anima can be removed from the process by using Github and Figma. This will allow developers and designers to easily hand over these elements to the platforms they already use.
Anima's bottom-up approach to distribution is proving successful. Anima is free for any designer to sign up. Currently, there are over 600,000 registered users. This is compared to the roughly 300,000. users registered in October 2020. Avishay Cohen stated that the number of active users is growing too. There are now 80,000 active users per month, compared to 10,000 one year ago.
The Cohens explained that over 5 percent of paid users convert to paying users and that 15% of paying accounts grow into teams within one to two months of being a paid user. Cofounders of the startup are already receiving requests for enterprise accounts. This is the next phase of their business, they say.
TechCrunch spoke to Arbel about the biggest challenge of this time being hiring in remote areas. Anima has found a solution by looking for talent globally. The Cohens said that it was difficult to foster and maintain company culture with hyperscaling, increasing the team from four people to thirty in a year, and continuing to hire.
