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Kilo Raises $8M for Agentic Engineering

In December 2025, the open-source developer platform Kilo raised $8 million in a Seed funding round. The investment was led by Cota Capital, with participation from General Catalyst, Quiet Capital, and Tokyo Black.

The company is co-founded by CEO Scott Breitenother and Sid Sijbrandij, the co-founder of GitLab. Kilo is moving beyond simple “code completion” to pioneer “Agentic Engineering.”

While tools like GitHub Copilot act as a “passenger” suggesting lines of code, Kilo is building autonomous agents that actively drive the engineering process. Its platform integrates deeply into the developer environment (VS Code, JetBrains, CLI), allowing agents to not only write code but also execute complex workflows like automated code reviews, one-click deployments, and multi-file refactoring. Kilo claims to have already processed over 6 trillion tokens monthly, positioning itself as a high-speed, open-source infrastructure that works with engineers rather than just for them.

The new capital will be used to accelerate its roadmap for “Agentic Speed,” expanding its support for local LLMs and enterprise-grade governance tools.

Market Signal

  • The “GitLab” Playbook 2.0: With Sid Sijbrandij as a co-founder, Kilo is replicating the GitLab strategy: commoditize the proprietary layer (GitHub/Microsoft) with a superior Open Core product. This signals a move to make “AI Agents” the new standard infrastructure, not a paid add-on.
  • From Copilot to Agent: Kilo’s funding validates the industry shift from “Chat” (asking questions) to “Agency” (assigning tasks). Their “Parallel Agents” feature allows developers to spin up multiple AI workers simultaneously, fundamentally changing the unit economics of software production.
  • The “BYO-Model” Moat: By staying model-agnostic (supporting OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and local models), Kilo secures a strategic position as the “Switzerland of AI Coding,” appealing to enterprises who fear vendor lock-in with Microsoft/OpenAI.

Key Details

  • Company: Kilo
  • Funding: $8M Seed
  • Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
  • Lead Investor: Cota Capital
  • Co-Founders: Scott Breitenother (CEO), Sid Sijbrandij (GitLab Founder)
  • Use Case: Open-source agentic engineering and autonomous coding workflows

Written by Megan Harper

Megan Harper, Senior AI Industry Analyst at AIPressRoom, specializes in founder interviews and VC deal analysis, focusing on Generative AI. Her insights, backed by a decade of tech-journalism and a Stanford M.S., are cited by firms like Gartner and IEEE.

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