Investing in no-code
Investing in no-code
Recent announcements show investors are pouring money into no-code tools and solutions, looking for their next SaaS unicorn
Welcome to issue #5 of the No-code Analysis newsletter, a deep dive into no-code, product development, user experience, and technology.
Here’s what you’ll read about in this issue:
What recent announcements of the Airtable Platform and Google Tables and large investments mean for the no-code space
Why the first investment fund focused on the no-code space is optimistic about growth
Where you may notice changes in the growth of no-code tools over the next few years
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Photo by Chronis Yan on Unsplash
No-code in the news
A recent flurry of announcements by leaders in the no-code space has once again piqued the curiosity of the tech press and thought leaders. The announcements and related media mentions have many people speculating about trying to make sense of the competitive landscape and the continued growth of the no-code ecosystem.
Over the past two weeks, leading organizations in the no-code space have announced major developments.
Airtable: along with the widely-acclaimed release of the Airtable Platform bringing native automation and integrations to the product, the company also announced they had accepted a sizable investment of $185 million in new funding to fuel growth.
Webflow: the leading no-code website design tool announced they had recently surpassed the 100,000 customer mark. Product previews from their recent virtual world tour hinted at expanded capabilities in Webflow including native user subscriptions and logic flows.
Makerpad: the largest educational company and community focused on no-code recently announced the Makerpad Fund, led by Makerpad CEO Ben Tossell and Head of Revenue Melissa Tal. The fund aims to invest broadly in early no-code/low-code products, helping nascent products build community and accelerate product growth.
Google: to much acclaim from many in the tech press, Google launched the Google Tables product. Developed in an incubator at Google, Tables is widely perceived as a direct Airtable competitor.
To help understand how large the no-code ecosystem is and how large it could grow as a result of direct investment, we’ll dig into the size of the leading no-code companies and their growth potential.
The first no-code investment fund
The Makerpad Fund is the only fund focused completely on no-code/low-code investments. The fund will be led by well-known no-code personality Ben Tossell, CEO/Founder of Makerpad, and Melissa Tal, Makerpad’s Head of Revenue projects. The fund expects to deploy checks as early as October 1.
As an introduction for potential investors that are new to the no-code space, they created a comprehensive investor report resource to help them increase their understanding of the space. Fortunately, we don’t have to be investors to benefit from the research in the report.
Let's review the highlights.
1. Software development democratized
The Makerpad Fund was founded based on the thesis that the next big explosion in the internet revolution is going to happen in the no-code/low-code category.
They believe that democratizing software development is a net positive and will at the same time create great opportunities for growth and profitable investment.
The next big shift in the internet revolution is 'no-code/low-code'. Many people misunderstand its meaning, but the importance of democratising software development is understood widely. We no longer code in 0's and 1's. No-code/low-code is the next abstraction layer which unlocks the potential for everyone to build on the internet.
Source: Makerpad Fund Investor Report
In the same way that previous tools such as blogs and social media enabled everyone to participate in the internet, no-code tools will allow everyone to help build the internet.
There’s no longer a need to learn how to write code. Now you can use no-code tools to get a quick start and begin building immediately.
It’s a simple yet powerful theory.
2. Wider adoption and higher valuations
One of the most interesting elements of the Makerpad Fund thesis is the current levels of adoption compared to the potential opportunity for growth.
With the assistance of no-code tools, there has been an explosion of new apps built by solo creators, designers, developers, and agencies. No-code tools are already enabling creators to build the next wave of startups more quickly at vastly lower costs.
As the tools become ever more sophisticated and incorporate critical integrations and data syncing capabilities, they are finding their way into larger organizations.
Gartner estimates that within 5 years, no-code/low code tools will account for 65% of application development (source: Gartner)
Forrester estimates the no-code/low-code market size will be $21.2 billion in 2021 (source: Forrester)
Makerpad predicts there will be 7-10 companies worth more than $1 billion in the next 5-10 years, with several more worth more than $1 million (source: Makerpad)
3. Moving into the enterprise
We’ve seen signs of no-code beginning to spread within enterprise organizations, and the Makerpad Fund Investor Report believes this will continue.
There is little doubt that the ability to create custom workflows and solutions with no-code tools will be alluring for many businesses, especially as platform tools like Airtable become more powerful and Google Tables becomes more widely known.
These tools will soon pop up in many organizations alongside existing business systems and integrate with shared datasets, offering an alternative to legacy systems for those workers looking for a more intuitive experience.
The next big thing
Predictions can be tricky in a relatively new, yet rapidly evolving category. As the announcements over the past two weeks have made clear, no-code tool makers have only begun to innovate. The ecosystem will be evolving for the foreseeable future.
With new tools unveiled each week, the next year will be an intense time for no-code companies. Investors will be wise to pay close attention as seismic shifts continue.
Here are five thoughts about themes to watch over the next 12 months:
Increased investment in the no-code space: the Makerpad Fund may be the first fund dedicated to no-code, but it will not be the last.
Webflow becomes a platform: with hints of additional functionality on the horizon, Webflow will become a powerful tool that empowers creators to do much more than creating websites.
The pace of no-code innovation accelerates: each week will bring interesting news about new no-code tools and resources for creators.
Google Tables becomes part of the Google Business Application Platform: Tables will drop the beta designation and Google will move to integrate it into their business platform for broad reach within organizations globally.
Consolidation and mergers: as the category leaders evolve and become more complex, opportunities will appear for less well-known players to join forces and focus on specific use cases and verticals.
We’ll keep our eyes open and know you will too. Send us a note on Twitter @nocodemethod if you have predictions or you think we missed something.
That’s all for this issue. Thanks for reading. We hope it gave you some things to think about and inspires you to get out there and build!
Please let us know what you liked, what you didn’t like, and point out anything we missed. You can drop a comment below, and we’re always listening on Twitter @nocodemethod.
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