Vercel Secures $300M Funding, Accelerates AI-Focused Strategy

AI coding startup Vercel raises $300 million, valued at $9.3 billion

Sept 30 (Reuters) - Vercel, the U.S.-based cloud platform that helps developers build and quickly deploy scalable websites, said on Tuesday it had raised $300 million in an oversubscribed Series F round, valuing the startup at $9.3 billion. The round was co-led by venture capital firm Accel and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, with new investors including BlackRock, StepStone and Khosla Ventures. Growing reliance on AI for critical workflows is driving both investor capital into AI infrastructure and demand for developer‑friendly platforms like Vercel. Silicon Valley-based Vercel helps developers build websites and applications, including tools powered by artificial intelligence. Its customers include OpenAI, Anthropic, PayPal, Nike and Walmart. Vercel said its user base doubled over the past year and revenue rose 82%. The company plans to use the funds to expand its AI Cloud services, strengthen security features and invest in its AI development agent, v0, which it says has more than 3.5 million users. It is also preparing to launch v0 Mobile in October, allowing developers to build apps using voice and camera inputs. Separately, the company expects a $300 million secondary tender offer for employees, former employees and early investors to close in November. Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Vercel grabs $300M in late-stage funding to fuel its AI pivot - SiliconANGLE

Vercel Inc., the frontend development specialist that enables companies to quickly build and deploy scalable websites, said today it has raised $300 to accelerate its transition to focus on artificial intelligence. The company said its oversubscribed Series F funding round was led by Accel and the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, with participation from new investors BlackRock, StepStone and Khosla Ventures, raising its valuation to $9.3 billion. As more enterprises come to rely on AI for critical workflows, demand for developer-friendly platforms like Vercel is increasing rapidly, the company's founder and chief executive officer Guillermo Rauch said in a blog post announcing the investment. Silicon Valley-based Vercel made its name helping developers build websites and applications. It's the creator of Next.js, a popular open-source framework that's used to build frontends for websites and applications. The company commercializes Node.js through a cloud service offloads processing tasks that are usually done in the user's browser to website operators' servers. That allows those tasks to be completed faster, which reduces webpage loading times. Having established itself as a developer favorite, Vercel has in the last year shifted its focus towards AI development with the launch of its AI Cloud platform. Its main component is a software development kit known as the AI SDK, which provides streamlined access to more than 60 of the most powerful large language models from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic PBC, Meta Platforms Inc., Cohere Inc. and others. The AI SDK has proven to be immensely popular, with more than three million downloads per week, making it the company's fastest-growing open-source project, Rauch said. "Just like React brought accessibility to pages, the AI SDK is bringing accessibility to tokens to multiple sources of intelligence," he added. The company also offers access to AI infrastructure and an open-source vibe coding platform called v0, which boasts more than 3.5 million users. Earlier this month, it debuted its very first AI agent, called Vercel Agent, in public beta. It's primary task is to automate code reviews, scanning human- and AI-generated codebases, identifying problems and creating fixes for any problems it finds. Its fixes are validated in sandboxed environments to ensure they don't cause any further strife. "Our bet on open source has become a powerful flywheel, and we're excited to continue democratizing agents and making them accessible to everyone," Rauch said. "We've evolved as much in this last year as we did in the first nine. Because there has to be a cloud that's designed and purpose-built for AI applications. Vercel has built this from the ground up with the AI Cloud." The AI Cloud has helped to ignite dramatic new growth for Vercel, doubling its user base over the last 12 months and increasing its revenue by 82%. Rauch said its customers include some of the leading players in the AI industry, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as big-name enterprises like PayPal Holdings Inc., Nike Inc. and Walmart Inc. Rauch said Vercel will use the funds from today's round to expand its AI cloud services and enhance the v0 development agent's capabilities. It's also set to launch a mobile version of v0 later this month, which will make it possible for developers to build applications using voice and camera inputs. Separately, Vercel is also planning a $300 million secondary tender offer for current and former employees and early investors, which is expected to close next month.