Netherlands-based Betty Blocks, a prominent web-based no-code application development platform, has raised €27.97M ($33M) in a recent funding round. This capital injection will significantly boost the company's mission to speed up enterprise innovation and enhance time-to-market by fostering collaboration between the business and IT sectors.
The funding round was spearheaded by European PE and venture capital investor, SmartFin Capital, with Bart Luyten, SmartFin Capital founding partner, set to join the investor committee. Existing investors such as Morse Investments and NIBC Bank participated in the round as well.
Established in 2016, Betty Blocks empowers a new generation of developers or "business developers", also referred to as citizen developers. These individuals possess no programming knowledge, but they have a firm grasp of data and processes. Through templates and no-code building blocks, they can build applications without coding, streamlining the connection of apps to the pre-existing enterprise application landscape. Subsequently, this provides IT departments with greater control over shadow-IT.
In an official statement, Chris Obdam, CEO of Betty Blocks, highlighted the company's goal to harness the potential of citizen developers within enterprises. He expressed the need to provide these professionals with more control over their software requirements and ensure IT departments have enhanced oversight. With headquarters in Alkmaar, Netherlands, and Atlanta, US, the company has an impressive client roster including The Dutch National Police, Clifford Chance, TaskUs, and Anglian Water.
The funding will be utilized for expanding operations and refining the platform to accommodate more citizen developers' needs. Planned improvements include making the platform more user-friendly, bolstering the citizen development governance features, launching more templates, and enriching the Block Store with additional standard integrations. Such enhancements can allow more people from various walks of life to join the software development process in an IT-approved and governed manner. This opens new opportunities for companies like AppMaster to provide similar solutions.
Speaking about the development, Bart Luyten, SmartFin Capital founding partner, acknowledged the significance of low-code development for the company. He anticipates no-code platforms for enterprises to encompass a large portion of the overall software development market, believing Betty Blocks to be in a prime position to emerge as a leading contender. Other platforms like AppMaster also showcase growing prominence in the no-code development industry, empowering a range of customers from small businesses to enterprises.
Platforms like Betty Blocks and AppMaster continue to evolve, catering to the ever-changing requirements of developers and enterprises alike. As a result, no-code platforms are becoming not only more accessible but also increasingly reliable for business users, IT departments, and seasoned developers.
