Ponicode, a startup created in June 2019, has announced a seed fund raising of three million euros. This specialist in artificial intelligence and data sciences was able to count on the support of Breega, Kima and Plug & Play Ventures as well as about twenty Business Angels and part of the Ponicode team. The French start-up also obtained a loan of 1 million euros from Bpifrance to continue the development of its artificial intelligence for its solution to improve code quality.

Artificial intelligence at the service of code quality

Created in June 2019, Ponicode aims to make developers’ daily life easier thanks to its low code AI-based solution that allows to generate unit tests in JavaScript in a few clicks in VSCode. Ponicode’s ambition is to help developers produce quality code, faster, and above all to focus on what they love most: coding.

“Code quality has become a key issue for companies in a world where digital technology has transformed all aspects of society. At the heart of the digital world are software programs developed using millions of lines of code. For example, there is as much software in smartphones as there is in a car, or about 100 million lines of code. Yet software is still too often buggy, which can have disastrous consequences. This is not acceptable and the code must make its transition to a flawless quality. We want to raise standards and become a major player in the evolution of development practices”. says Patrick Joubert, co-founder and CEO of Ponicode.

To do this, Ponicode has developed a platform based on AI and machine learning that tests the various functions of computer programs to relieve developers of tedious and time-consuming tasks. Trained on millions of lines of code, this platform generates unit tests and proposes improvements to developers so that they deliver error-free code. Thus Ponicode improves the quality of products, accelerates their time to market and contributes to business innovation.

One year after its creation, Ponicode has already passed several major milestones such as the June 2020 launch of the public beta of its solution and the May 2020 integration of Microsoft’s AI Factory program into Station F, one of the objectives of which is to train European AI champions.

Ponicode is made up of a team of 11 passionate, ultra-qualified, multi-cultural and ready to take up the challenge of bringing the code into a new era. Also a community of fans and early adopters has already tested the private beta and is very enthusiastic about the future.

Ponicode is the third company of Patrick Joubert, AI expert. In 2011, he founded Beamap, a consulting firm specializing in the cloud, which was acquired by Sopra Steria in 2014. He then created Recast.AI in 2015, a collaborative conversational platform accessible to developers to create chatbots, and acquired by SAP in January 2018.

An exponentially growing market linked to the digital revolution

This funding will enable the startup to expand its R&D team to continue developing its product to meet the needs of businesses as closely as possible. The objective is to double the size of the team in one year, to start the marketing phase with companies and to begin international deployment, particularly in the United States.

“With its AI technology for automatic generation of unit tests, Ponicode solves a real pain point for developers who, until now, have had to write their unit tests themselves to ensure that the lines of code written fulfill the desired function. The Ponicode product interface integrates directly into the development environment (IDE), offering a resolutely innovative and seamless experience for developers.

Breega is delighted to be part of this new adventure and to accompany Patrick and Baptiste, both seasoned entrepreneurs, in their conquest of this extremely promising market,” adds Maximilien Bacot, Founding Partner at Breega.

“We are very happy to support Ponicode and allow them to spread their AI solution around the world. For a year now, the team has been constantly innovating to offer a complete product adapted to the current needs of developers. We trust them to continue this development and to go international”. says Alexis Robert, partner at Kima Venture.

“We immediately liked the idea of tackling the problem of code quality at source and creating a product that developers will use all the time, in a transparent way. The passion with which Patrick and the whole Ponicode team showed us the first results of their work and explained their ambition for the company did the rest. We are very proud to work with this exceptional mix of talents and to support them throughout this exciting adventure,” adds Martin Lehmann VC at Plug and Play Ventures.

Translated from Qualité du code : Ponicode lève trois millions d’euros pour pour poursuivre le développement de son IA