The artificial intelligence landscape is witnessing another significant development as tech industry heavyweights unite to reshape how we interact with AI agents. Stripe's former CTO David Singleton, along with co-founders from Google and Meta, has launched /dev/agents, securing a remarkable $56 million seed funding round led by Index Ventures and Alphabet's CapitalG.
The startup's founding team reads like a who's who of Silicon Valley, including Hugo Barra, who led Android product management at Google and later headed Oculus VR at Meta, Ficus Kirkpatrick, an early Android engineer and former VP of AR/VR at Meta, and Nicholas Jitkoff, who contributed to Google Chrome and held senior positions at Dropbox and Figma.
What sets /dev/agents apart is its ambitious vision to create an operating system for AI agents, drawing parallels to how Android revolutionized the smartphone industry. The platform aims to provide a unified foundation for developers to build and deploy AI agents while offering users personalized interfaces powered by generative AI.
The impressive $500 million valuation demonstrates strong investor confidence, with notable angel investors including Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, and Android founder Andy Rubin joining as an advisor. The startup is positioning itself to launch its first product by early-to-mid next year, entering a competitive space alongside Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, but with a distinct focus on creating the fundamental infrastructure for AI agent deployment and management.
Building the Android for AI Agents: Inside /dev/agents' Revolutionary Vision
The emergence of /dev/agents marks a pivotal moment in the AI industry's evolution, particularly in how organizations will deploy and manage AI agents at scale. The startup's approach focuses on creating a standardized operating system that could potentially become the Android equivalent for AI agents, addressing key challenges in deployment, integration, and management.
Technical Infrastructure and Innovation
At its core, /dev/agents is developing what they call an "agent-native platform," designed to handle the complexities of running multiple AI agents simultaneously while managing their interactions and resources. The platform aims to solve critical challenges that currently hinder widespread AI agent adoption, including:
- Standardized deployment frameworks
- Resource optimization
- Inter-agent communication protocols
- Security and permission management
- Performance monitoring and scaling
Strategic Market Positioning
The timing of /dev/agents' entry into the market is particularly significant. While companies like Anthropic and OpenAI focus on developing individual AI models and agents, /dev/agents is targeting the infrastructure layer - a crucial but relatively underserved segment of the AI ecosystem.
Hugo Barra, one of the co-founders, explained their approach: "We're building the foundational layer that will enable developers to create, deploy, and manage AI agents at scale, similar to how Android provided the foundation for mobile app development."
Investment and Growth Strategy
The substantial seed funding will primarily support:
- Core platform development
- Expansion of the engineering team
- Development of developer tools and SDKs
- Building strategic partnerships
Market Impact and Future Prospects
The involvement of Andy Rubin as an advisor is particularly noteworthy, given his experience in building Android into the world's most widely used mobile operating system. His guidance could prove invaluable as /dev/agents attempts to create a similar standardized platform for AI agents.
The startup's focus on infrastructure rather than end-user applications positions it uniquely in the market. While most companies are racing to build individual AI agents, /dev/agents is creating the foundation that could potentially power the entire ecosystem of AI agents in the future.
With their first product launch targeted for early-to-mid next year, /dev/agents is poised to potentially reshape how businesses and developers approach AI agent deployment and management, much like Android transformed mobile app development.
Ex Stripe Founder Raises $56M for AI Agent Startup /dev/agents
In a significant move that underscores the growing importance of AI agent infrastructure, former Stripe CTO David Singleton and his team of tech veterans have secured $56 million in seed funding for their new venture, /dev/agents. The startup, valued at an impressive $500 million, aims to create what many are calling the "Android of AI agents" - a standardized operating system for deploying and managing AI agents at scale.
The funding round, led by Index Ventures and Alphabet's CapitalG, brings together an exceptional group of investors and advisors. Notable participants include Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, and Android founder Andy Rubin, whose involvement as an advisor adds particular weight to the company's ambitious vision.
What makes /dev/agents particularly interesting is its founding team's pedigree. Alongside Singleton, the startup boasts Hugo Barra, former Android product management lead at Google and Oculus VR head at Meta; Ficus Kirkpatrick, an early Android engineer and former Meta AR/VR VP; and Nicholas Jitkoff, who played key roles at Google Chrome, Dropbox, and Figma.
The startup's focus on creating fundamental infrastructure for AI agents comes at a crucial time. While companies like OpenAI and Anthropic concentrate on developing individual AI models, /dev/agents is targeting the critical layer that will enable widespread deployment and management of AI agents across organizations. This approach could potentially solve many of the current challenges in AI agent adoption, including standardization, resource management, and scalability.
/dev/agents plans to launch its first product by early-to-mid 2024, entering a competitive but largely untapped market segment. The substantial funding will be used to build out the core platform, expand the engineering team, and develop essential tools for developers.
For the AI agent ecosystem, this development represents a potential turning point. Just as Android provided a standardized platform that accelerated mobile app development and adoption, /dev/agents could offer the infrastructure needed to mainstream AI agent deployment across industries. The implications for businesses looking to build and deploy AI workforces are significant, potentially making it easier and more cost-effective to integrate AI agents into their operations at scale.
Observers should watch for the platform's initial release and early adoption patterns, as these will likely indicate whether /dev/agents can indeed become the foundational layer for the next generation of AI agent deployment and management.