#PowerToTheDeveloper Building the Web Infrastructure for AI Agents and CRV’s Investment in Browserbase
By Reid Christian
AI isn’t just flying, it’s traveling at warp speed. Along with AI’s momentum comes an imminent need for reliable railroad tracks for the first trains traversing this new landscape. Developers are using LLMs to automate more tasks than ever before and web browsers are an essential platform to execute these automations… and developers need help running them, which is where Browserbase comes in. Developers use headless web browsers to programmatically interact with the web. These headless web browsers are especially difficult to run in a production environment. With Browserbase, customers simply connect to a managed web browser that integrates seamlessly with their existing code. Headless web browsers have always been an essential piece of infrastructure for multiple categories including RPA (UI Path), data scraping (Apollo), testing businesses (including CRV backed businesses like Checkly, Chromatic and Mabl) and integrations (Plaid).
“I’ve been fortunate to know the CRV team for quite a while, since a pickleball event they hosted in 2021, to be precise. They work with some of my favorite founders (Colin at Clerk and Guillermo at Vercel, both of whom invested in Browserbase). CRV’s combo of deep devtools knowledge and moving in the same circles is what cemented my decision to select the firm as our partner.” — Paul Klein IV, Founder of Browserbase
Today we’re pleased to announce our investment in Browserbase. When Paul and I first met, we immediately connected over our shared infatuation with developer platforms. His rapid career trajectory mirrors the lightning fast rise of AI and is impressive, but not surprising, to anyone who knows him. Paul’s career began as a software engineering intern during Twilio’s IPO. He went on to become Twilio’s youngest senior software engineer and its youngest technical lead.
After Twilio, Paul co-founded his first company, Stream Club (which made live-streaming on the web seamless). Stream Club was acquired by Mux which is where Paul was working until he founded Browserbase in January of 2024. The rocketship Paul is on continues its steep ascent: today’s Series A was raised by the team in less than nine months.
We’ve been active investors in developer platforms like Vercel that are indexed to trends in web development. Like Vercel, Browserbase has a broad base of customers that ranges from hundreds of agent companies building on Browserbase to vertical software companies and traditional data extraction use cases. Another thing Browserbase has in common with its sister CRV backed business is its ability to rack up prestigious awards including nabbing a posh placement on The Information’s list of Top AI Applications Startups.
Here at CRV, we believe Browserbase is perfectly poised to assemble the foundational footprints that AI agents need as guides when they interact with new software the same way humans do via the web browser. AI products have the strongest value-add to us as humans when they accentuate and tap into the way we currently buy and live rather than attempting to change our behavior. Waymo is an excellent example of AI working for us in a way that naturally enhances the way we get around without altering our natural routine. If you’re an energized, enthusiastic entrepreneur building a critical piece of application infrastructure that eliminates the pain and complexity of companies building and maintaining their own, get to know our team. We’d love to hear from you.
