Earlier this week, Parabola, a no-code platform that's focusing on automation for e-commerce, raised a Series A round of $8 million. This takes their total funding to $10.2 million, as this round follows a prior $2.2 million seed round in 2018. Their CEO told TechCrunch that their aim is to "bring the power of programming to everybody." Seems ideal right? Everyone has a startup idea that they want to work on, but struggle with the execution - especially if they don't have a technical background. However, the biggest concern has been that the applications built through these no-code platforms are fine as a hobby but not as an actual, monetizable application.
In 2015, Vladimir Leytus built a Twitter clone in less than a week. He named it "Not Real Twitter" and released it with this prediction:
At the time, Vladimir was working on launching his own company, AirDev, which helps clients leverage no-code platforms to build applications and other products. By building a Twitter clone in less than week, he wanted to prove to prospective clients that it was possible to build powerful applications using these platforms.
In 2020, the team at AirDev decided that no-code platforms had made significant progress, and the original "Not a Real Twitter" (which you can find here) did not do enough justice to showcase this. So, they built a new version of "Not a Real Twitter" (which you can find here.) Yes, they built this one in a week as well.
Both versions of "Not a Real Twitter" were built using Bubble, an American company that was founded in 2012. In their "How To" section on the website, Bubble shows how to build an Instagram clone, a Shopify clone, a YouTube clone and lots more using their platform. Till date, Bubble has raised $6.3 million, which was in their seed round that took place around a year ago. The company offers a wide range of pricing plans starting at a free plan going up to as much as $529 a month. On the homepage of their website they list several examples of companies that have raised funding or generated revenue after building products on their platform -
No-code platforms are not just limited to building apps. You can build websites using a no-code platform. Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Shopify are just a few examples of platforms that have become exponentially more popular in the last decade. Even most newsletters are built using platforms such as MailChimp, ScrollStack or Substack, all platforms that do not require any coding knowledge. Even for those who know how to code, these platforms are increasingly becoming easier to use and deploy. For instance, if you talk to anyone with an e-commerce company, they are likely to have built their website on WooCommerce (Wordpress) or Shopify - both of which are no-code platforms. It's just more efficient and easier to maintain, even if you have the ability to build them from scratch.
Several no-code platforms have grown significantly over the last few years and are now being taken very seriously. According to this "Markets and Markets" report, the size of this industry for these types of app builders could grow to more than $45bn by 2023.
This is significant for several reasons. For one, this opens up the possibility for non-technical people to build websites and apps without having to find someone who can code. For anyone who's spent months looking for a "technical co-founder" this is a considerable breakthrough. It is well within the realm of possibility (as seen in the image above) to now raise money for an app, or at least build an MVP, without even having an engineering team or a coder on board.
Moreover, as per a 2019 study, there are only 19 million coders worldwide, out of which only 13 million are "professional." The rise of these no-code platforms allows for a lot more innovation from people who do not have a technical background - which is evidently most of the world's population. As the CEO of Webflow Vlad Magdalin said, "The no-code movement unlocks the power of software creation to *at least* ten times as many people as are writing code today."
However, this is not to say that people who can code are now suddenly redundant. Even within these no-code platforms, there are several plugins that you would use - all of these plugins have been coded by someone. Moreover, there is a whole world apart from building apps and websites, for instance AI, that require specialized coding knowledge, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. As evidenced by the recent $300 million acquisition of WhiteHat by Byju's, there's still several people who want to learn how to code, and for good reason. There are also still limitations in what you're able to achieve with no-code as well, and customizations on platforms such as Webflow and Wordpress are done using code. Ironically, there would be no no-code platforms without coders.
The rise of the no-code has been great for the entire industry - there are no losers. Coders are still as in demand as ever, and now the opportunity to build products is open to the entire world. The next step is to see how fast no-code platforms progress, and how many new startups and products are built on these platforms. As Vladimir Leytus said, “I’d love to see somebody build something that scales in a really massive way on a no-code platform.” It is definitely an sector to watch out for sure!
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