Low code — high demand
All of us interact with millions of lines of code everyday. In fact, reading this article is only possible through the powerful code which brings its contents to you. For the longest time, coding was the domain of software developers, programmers and IT professionals. All that has changed because of low-code and no-code development platforms which do away with the need to write the code line-by-line and provide a visual development environment which abstracts and automates the process of developing code.
The reduced complexity not only makes application development accessible to citizen developers, but low code also appeals to professional developers who would like to get their work done faster. According to Gartner’s survey, 66% of low code development users are professional developers from an enterprise’s IT department. Gartner’s report predicted that low-code application building would gather more than 65% of all app development functions by 2024.The pandemic has only served to accelerate the adoption of low code, with businesses being forced to connect to users digitally and adapt their business processes to the new normal, and do so quickly. According to a report by marketsandmarkets, the low-code industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28.1%, from $13.2 B in 2020 to $45.5 B in 2025. This suggests that low-code is not merely a category, but represents a fundamental shift in programming and app development.
The low-code sector is attracting immense investor interest and is on course to raise at least $500M in 2020. No-code platform Airtable, which boasts of having clients like Netflix and HBO, recently announced that it has raised a $185M Series D led by Thrive Capital at a valuation of $2.6B. Airtable has seen a growth of 20% in the past 6 months in website traffic according to similarweb data making the most of the opportunities in this growing market. Another player Unqork, raised a $207 M Series C, valuing the company at around $2B. The platform has seen a rapid increase in website traffic of 97% in the past 6 months alone. Both Airtable and Unqork expanded their employee count by more than 60% as of September since Jan ‘20.
Appian, which is recognised as a leader in the low-code category by Gartner, has launched three new apps to help businesses mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The stock prices for Appian have risen by more than 2x from $40 in Jan to an all-time high of $84 in Oct ’20. It has seen a solid revenue growth of ~25% in cloud subscriptions the first quarter of 2020, reflected in its website growth of 36% YTD. Airkit, a low-code platform dedicated to providing a more personalized digital customer experience, announced that it has raised $28 M in funding since its inception. It increased its employee count by 60% in the past six months.
The growth of the sector has also led to some interesting developments with M&A activities. Google acquired AppSheet to add it to its workspace bundle. Appsheet has seen a 68% increase in its website traffic YTD. Appy Pie acquired App Makr and Infinite Monkeys to extend its reach to over 10 million end-users. This has allowed Appy Pie to increase its website traffic by 63% YTD.
Early stage companies have also witnessed remarkable growth since the pandemic. AppGyver, Baseet and Toucantoo saw more than 4x growth in their web visits over 6 months from Apr-Sep ’20. Ninox and Stacker also had a surge of 121% and 129% respectively in website traffic in the same period.
With no-Code/low-Code being increasingly adopted, it seems like the shift from traditional coding to no-code/low-code is what will define the next generation of software.
