“Still in shock”, say Builder.ai staff, following collapse into insolvency

Workers at Microsoft-backed UK unicorn Builder.ai, which has fallen into insolvency, said today they are “still in shock” at the turn of events.

Shalini J, a senior software engineer at Builder.ai, said she was “still in shock”. The software engineer was one of many Builder.ai workers who took to LinkedIn, posting about the “unexpected news”. 

She said: “It’s hard to believe how a company can go from over 1,000 employees to zero. Yesterday started as a normal day and by the end of it, we found out Builder.ai had filed for bankruptcy. Everything changed in an instant.”

Like many, she said she was now looking for a new role.

Ashraf Al-Kassem, product manager, Builder.ai, said his time at the AI startup had come to an “unexpected end”. He said: “It’s a difficult moment- one filled with reflection, emotion and gratitude."

Lea Lace Temamian, business development manager, Builder.ai, said it “hasn’t been an easy journey”. She said: “It hasn’t been an easy journey yet a remarkable one! In my tenure of a year and a half, despite all the challenges, we achieved big wins."

Sachin Dev Duggal, the founder of Builder.ai, has not spoken on social media since yesterday's announcement.

Builder.ai did not respond to a request for comment.

It was revealed yesterday that the AI unicorn, which has received around £450m in investment and is backed by Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Fund, had collapsed into insolvency, just weeks after it was forced to restate its past financial figures.

The London-based startup has been valued at $1bn.

According to the Financial Times, which broke the news, the company, founded in 2016, informed employees it was filing for bankruptcy in a company-wide call yesterday.

It said that its new CEO Manpreet Ratia said he had been attempting to run the tech startup with “zero dollars” in its UK and US bank accounts in recent days and that it owed $85m to Amazon and $30m to Microsoft.

Builder.ai is thought to have around 770 staff after cutting around 270 staff earlier this year. This 35 per cent reduction was part of a broader restructuring initiative led by Ratia.