ToolJet: The open-source internal tool builder

Recently, Tooljet raised $1.56 Million in funding from marquee investors, including Nexus Venture Partners, Ratio Ventures and Better. ToolJet is building an open-source low-code platform for the rapid development of internal tools.

Base story

Recently, Tooljet raised $1.56 Million in funding from marquee investors including Nexus Venture Partners Ratio Ventures and Better Capital.

Tooljet is building an open-source low-code platform for the rapid development of internal tools..

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Hundreds of startups have already adopted Tooljet, from early-stage teams to unicorns.

Since going live in 2021, ToolJet's GitHub repository has received contributions from 100s of contributors worldwide– including devs from leading companies like Freshworks and  Razorpay.

The open-source model was substantially helpful for quick userfeedback and in creating a global community around the product, which has drastically helped Tooljet's product evolution.

The Origin

Tooljet was founded by Navaneeth PK in April 2021, who previously co-founded MobiPush ( Acquired by Freshworks, 2015 ).

Navaneeth started MobiPush right after dropping out of undergrads - MobiPush initially focused on providing desktop push-notification services on web browsers, and MobiPush managed to acquire enterprise customers like City Bank, HDFC and Bluestone. Later MobiPush was acquired by Freshworks, and Navaneeth briefly worked at Freshworks.

After Freshworks, Navaneeth worked as a consultant at Bigbinary. During that time, Navaneeth started WanderWhale as a hobby project. Initially, WanderWhale started as a travel itinerary and later iterated into a platform providing curated information on India's 500+ tourist destinations. Navaneeth was able to scale WanderWhale to 80k monthly unique visitors, and later it was acquired by another party.

Navaneeth used the capital gained from WanderWhale's exit to bootstrap Tooljet as a single developer. When the product development started, he had the internal milestone of 2 months to launch the product's beta version.

Tooljet was initially launched on ProductHunt and quickly became the product of the day. However, in this case, ProductHunt didn't provide any substantial traffic – but later, the launch on Hacker news was highly beneficial. On Hackernews, the product quickly climbed to the front page, which helped get the first 1000 starts for the Tooljet opensource project on Github.

This initial positive response on GitHub was crucial since this accelerated the community involvement and provided the initial traction for the product.

Core Problem

Building internal tools to manage internal operations and workflows is necessary for companies at every stage. Companies have unique use cases demanding a wide variety of tools driven by company's internal data and metrics.

Building an internal application can be time-intensive; companies may have to spend significant engineering resources and time to build these kinds of apps.

This is where tools like Tooljet, which helps to build, manage and deploy internal tools come into the picture.

The Product

Tooljet is an open-source low code framework that provides prebuild components and features that help clients rapidly build, iterate and manage their internal tools.

Tooljet's core product is freely available on Github. Tooljet has premium enterprise plans which provide additional features like unlimited application creation and SSO (Single sign-on).

Even large firms with millions or billions in funding still face the challenge of limited engineering resources. Using tools like Tooljet with a low-code approach can significantly help to reduce the usage of the firm's engineering resources for internal purposes.

Low-code philosophy of the product drastically helps to minimize developer time required to create and maintain internal apps, and the open-source nature help to run those apps in their internal environment where companies themself has control over their internal data.

Plus, the open-source model; has helped to bring significant contributions from developers across the globe – these contributors include developers from some of the well-known startups like Razorpay and Freshworks.

The journey

From the initial Hacker news launch to current funding -- Tooljet has come a long way. The open-source model has been a key driver of growth from the beginning. Initially, the Tooljet just launched with basic features; now, the team is focused on building features which make the life of their enterprise customer easier.

Right from the launch, the Tooljet was able to see a product community fit and strong traction. To accelerate the growth journey after the launch, Navaneeth tried seeking out additional venture funding.

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Current Story

Tooljet currently has backing from marquee investors, including Nexus Venture Partners, Ratio Ventures and Better Capital.

When seeking venture investors, Tooljet wanted a backer who shared its core ideology of open-source-driven products. Here Nexus Venture Partners seems like a good fit since they have previously backed India's notable enterprise companies like Postman and India's latest unicorn Hausra.

With the right team and a rapidly expanding low-code market, Tooljet has a  bright road ahead. This recently raised capital gives, Tooljet an adequate runway while significantly expanding its current product offerings.

Wishing all the best for Tooljet's future growth, and thanks, @Navaneeth, for sharing all the valuable insights on Tooljet's journey.

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Note: All the information shared in the above content is sourced from founders and publicly available sources, we do not share any confidential information regarding the venture or its investments.