The finger pointing has begun after Builder.ai, a Microsoft-backed AI start-up that boasted about its mobile app development tools, announced it had entered insolvency proceedings.
It's a huge fall for a company that once achieved unicorn status, receiving a valuation of more than $1 billion.
“This story holds significant relevance as the company undergoes bankruptcy proceedings,” a high-level Builder.ai employee told The National.
“Its founder, Sachin Dev Duggal, who has since moved to Dubai, has also been a prominent speaker at many conferences across the region, contributing thought leadership to the tech and business community,” the employee said in an email.
Mr Duggal was removed as chief executive from the London-based start-up back in March, although he curiously retained an association with the company, along the title of Chief Wizard.
In 2024, when Builder.ai was flush with investor cash and in the tech world's good graces, Mr Duggal briefly spoke to The National as he appeared at an event hosted by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, which had just announced a new AI centre.
“With this centre, we're helping to unveil a portal to global commerce,” he said at the time, reflecting on why Builder.ai chose DMCC as an ecosystem partner.
“We didn't want to be a software company just surrounded by other software companies, we wanted to be surrounded by potential customers and peers,” Mr Duggal added, referring to DMCC's reach and partnerships with gold, diamond, tea, coffee, crypto and gaming entities, to name a few.
According to employees and media reports, Builder.ai failed to meet revenue expectations. It had promised to make mobile app development as “easy as buying a pizza” but struggled to create reliable products, disappointing investors like Microsoft and sovereign wealth funds in Qatar.
Mr Duggal requested additional investment funds, as well as an emergency loan just months before he was stripped of the chief executive title.
Audits later revealed a high likelihood that sales projections had been fudged, causing concern about other potential financial irregularities.
Today, the company's website is blank, except for listing two email addresses.
Builder.ai's LinkedIn page, which has 288,000 followers, turned off the comment section for a post announcing the company's insolvency proceedings.
“Despite the tireless efforts of our current team and exploring every possible option, the business has been unable to recover from historic challenges and past decisions that placed significant strain on its financial position,” the post reads.
“We will work closely with the appointed administrators to ensure an orderly process and to explore all available options for parts of the business, where possible.”
However, unhappy comments still surfaced on other parts of the company's LinkedIn page.
“What are you doing to get all of your customers their code for completed apps they paid for?” one person wrote.
“Don't believe these fancy conferences, flying around, inviting celebrities … Its all hype and nonsense,” wrote another, seemingly referring to the various events where the former chief executive appeared and bestowed start-up wisdom in the UAE, Qatar and elsewhere.
It's unclear if there will be any surviving pieces of intellectual property that might help Builder.ai survive in a different iteration. The company has quickly become a cautionary tale of high-flying AI expectations meeting the realities of a competitive and crowded tech market.
Mr Duggal, whose confidence and bold projections helped to put Builder.ai on the map did not immediately respond to The National's requests for comment.
He did, however, post some thoughts on a Builder.ai alumni LinkedIn group.
"I don’t think the story is done yet, but irrespective if I can be of any help to any of you as you make this transition in life please know I’m I’m only a message away," he posted in part.
"And more importantly - if I didn’t listen, if I was short, if I was unreasonable - I’m sorry."
In the UAE, the DMCC, with which Builder. AI had an “ecosystem partnership”, said it was evaluating developments.
“We are aware of the reports concerning Builder.ai, one of several ecosystem partners of the DMCC AI Centre,” read a statement from the DMCC's head of public relations.
“We are actively assessing the situation and working to establish what impact, if any, this may have on our ecosystem partnership. For now, our operations and service delivery continue as normal and we remain focused on supporting our members.”
