Developer tooling startup Expo has raised $45 million in a new funding round. The company develops an open-source framework that significantly speeds up the creation of cross-platform applications using React Native.
Expo's framework allows developers to build iOS, Android, and web versions of an app primarily using JavaScript, eliminating the need for separate codebases. The platform also simplifies interface navigation features and automates app update rollouts.
Revenue is generated through paid cloud services that automate intensive development tasks, particularly the build phase. Expo performs these tasks in the cloud, caching components and speeding up the process of turning code into functioning programs, before publishing to app stores.
Additional cloud services include hosting for server-side components, automatically scaling infrastructure during traffic spikes. This is crucial for applications like mobile e-commerce platforms managing product databases.
Alongside the funding, Expo announced Expo Agent, a new AI-powered programming assistant currently in public beta. This tool offers coding suggestions, bug fixes, and integration support.
"The problem with agentic app development is that business critical apps are not making it to production. That is the problem we are positioned to solve at Expo," said Expo co-founder and CEO Charlie Cheever. "We built the infrastructure for mobile apps and we can bake that infrastructure into Expo Agent."
The funding round, led by Georgian and joined by Leadout Capital, A Capital, and Red Swan, will be used to enhance the AI tool, accelerate the software build service, and integrate more third-party tools.