LastMile AI, a platform dedicated to empowering software engineers with generative AI model integration, has successfully raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Gradient, Google’s AI-focused venture fund. Additional investment came from AME Cloud Ventures, Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch, 10x Founders, and Exceptional Capital. Co-founder and CEO Sarmad Qadri stated that these funds will support the development of LastMile’s products and services and aid in expanding its seven-member team.
“Machine learning and AI have experienced several downturns, often due to limitations in computing resources, expertise, or high-quality training data,” Qadri shared in an email interview. “Our mission is to democratize generative AI by simplifying the tools and workflows, making it more accessible for users without deep technical knowledge.”
Before launching LastMile, Qadri and his co-founders, Andrew Hoh and Suyog Sonwalkar, were key members of Meta’s product engineering team, where they developed tools for managing AI models, experimentation, benchmarking, and performance monitoring specifically for machine learning engineers and data scientists. This experience served as a crucial source of inspiration for LastMile.
“The surge in interest and adoption of AI is largely driven by software developers and product teams integrating generative AI into their toolset. Yet, the existing machine learning developer tools are still primarily tailored for researchers and specialized practitioners,” Qadri noted. “We aim to empower developers by offering a new class of AI tools designed specifically for software engineers.”
Many businesses currently face significant hurdles in adopting AI technologies. A recent S&P Global survey revealed that nearly half of IT leaders believe their organizations are unprepared to implement AI effectively, with some suggesting it could take over five years to fully integrate AI into their workflows. Additionally, about one-third of respondents indicated they remain in the pilot or proof-of-concept stages, surpassing those who have achieved full-scale AI projects.
Despite these challenges, business leaders remain optimistic about embracing AI. In a 2022 Gartner survey, 80% of executives expressed confidence that automation could enhance any business decision. While model management was identified as a major obstacle—40% of organizations reported managing “thousands” of models—respondents did not view AI talent as a significant barrier.
LastMile allows users to create generative AI applications using both open- and closed-source text and image-generating models. Developers can customize these models with their proprietary data, seamlessly integrating them into new or existing apps, products, and services.
Through LastMile’s AI Workbooks module, users can explore different models from one comprehensive interface. The AI Workflows tool enables users to connect various models to establish more complex workflows, such as an application that transcribes audio to text, translates it, and applies a synthetic voiceover. The AI Templates module facilitates the creation of reusable development setups that can be shared within teams or with the broader LastMile community.
“Our vision for LastMile is to deliver a unified developer platform that streamlines the entire lifecycle of AI application development,” Qadri explained. “Currently, the AI development journey is fragmented, requiring the integration of multiple tools and a thorough understanding of each step, which raises the barrier for entry. Our goal is to create a platform that enables non-machine learning software engineers to develop AI-powered applications and workflows, covering everything from experimentation and prompt engineering to evaluation, deployment, and integration.”
LastMile isn’t alone in addressing these AI tooling and deployment challenges. When considering competitors, Qadri mentioned LlamaIndex, a startup providing a framework for developers to harness the potential of large language models with their personal or organizational data, and LangChain, an open-source toolkit that simplifies app creation with large language models like GPT-4.
Regardless of the competition, Qadri sees significant opportunities for New York City-based LastMile, which is currently pre-revenue, to make a notable impact in this emerging and rapidly expanding sector. According to market research, the AI model operations market is projected to reach $16.61 billion by 2030, indicating a promising future.
“Enterprises are actively exploring ways to transform their operations by embedding AI into their applications and workflows; however, they encounter last-mile challenges that hinder production readiness,” Qadri remarked. “Consider how many ChatGPT-based chatbots are currently on corporate websites. These challenges can largely be resolved through improved AI developer tools that facilitate quick experimentation, provide orchestration capabilities, and enhance monitoring and observability for production confidence. LastMile AI supplies the necessary tools and platform for businesses to confidently integrate AI into their applications.”
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