Airplane Raises $8.5M to Simplify Internal Tool Development

Airplane Launches Runbooks for Automated Internal Workflows

On Thursday, Airplane initiated a private beta release of its new developer tool, Runbooks, alongside a launch on Product Hunt.

Automating Complex Tasks

Runbooks empowers engineers to construct workflows by combining pre-built integrations – encompassing SQL, REST APIs, and Slack – with custom tasks executed via JavaScript code.

This allows for data manipulation, such as feeding information into a SQL database, or consolidating data from platforms like Stripe, making these processes accessible to teams beyond engineering.

The Founding Story

Airplane was established in 2020 by Josh Ma, previously the CTO of Benchling, also a Benchmark-backed company, and Ravi Parikh, a co-founder of the digital insights company Heap.

Their primary goal was to alleviate the burden on engineers by reducing the time spent on building and maintaining internal tools, allowing them to focus more intently on core product development.

Addressing a Critical Pain Point

“Through discussions, we identified a significant challenge faced at both our previous companies: the scarcity of effective internal tooling,” explained Parikh in an interview with TechCrunch.

“These tools are essential for managing customer data and resolving issues, such as data deletion or account merging, but often, customer success teams were forced to escalate tasks to engineering.”

Reducing Engineering Interruptions

This frequently resulted in a substantial influx of tickets – potentially dozens daily – disrupting the engineering team’s workflow, he noted.

Airplane’s initial offering, Airplane Tasks, transforms ad-hoc scripts and scheduled jobs into secure, reusable tools, according to Parikh.

Early Traction and Use Cases

The company, operating with a remote-first structure and hubs in San Francisco and New York, has already secured several paying customers and boasts hundreds of users.

These users are leveraging Airplane across a diverse range of applications, including administrative operations, customer onboarding, approval processes, and long-term tasks.

Series A Funding

The product launch was accompanied by $8.5 million in Series A funding, led by Benchmark.

As part of this investment, Eric Vishria will be joining Airplane’s board of directors.

Growth and Future Plans

Over the past year, Airplane has expanded to a team of 10 individuals spanning three countries.

The new funding will be used to double the company’s workforce and to invest in further product and technology development, with a particular focus on building self-service capabilities.

Significant Time Savings

“Processes that previously required hours, days, or even weeks can now be completed in just two to five minutes with Airplane,” Parikh stated.

“Engineers simply need to deploy the code and configure the user interface. A customer recently shared that our product allowed them to eliminate a backlog of requests that had accumulated over five years, bringing it down to zero for the first time.”