Airtable today announced that it has acquired Dopt, a startup focused on helping other startups build product onboarding experiences for new users.
Dopt introduced several features earlier this year that allowed users to add AI-based assistance tools to their services, which is the main reason for Airtable's acquisition of the company. The acquisition was completed at the end of last month, and Dopt plans to shut down its service on August 15. The Dopt team will join Airtable's AI group.
It's all part of Airtable's holistic approach to AI, co-founder and CEO Howie Liu told TechCrunch. The company, like many startups, went through a period of initial rapid growth during the pandemic before slowing a bit (Liu stressed that Airtable is always growing).
“From my own perspective, it really felt like a gear shift,” he told me. “It was like a change of mode, and I think it really pushed us to focus on what our strategy was and what were the big bets that we wanted to make.”
Limited resources generate “a certain kind of creativity,” Liu argued, forcing companies to get smart about how they allocate the resources they have.
Like many other startups, Airtable's current bet is on AI: Last week, the company released Airtable Cobuilder, a tool that lets users build apps by simply describing them in a Copilot-like chat interface.
“For me, AI really means two things. One is how to make it even easier to build software. Like the release of Cobuilder, which was about lowering the barrier of entry. We were literally speculating about this at the time. Maybe one day we'll actually provide a way for you to just talk to Airtable and have it build your app. We're here now. We never expected it to happen so quickly and be so effective.”
Liu emphasized that the Dopt acquisition is primarily about talent. While he said he likes the team, he also noted that Dopt is solely focused on onboarding, but that “when you onboard not only your own company but a lot of other companies, you develop a really good feel for how to create a really intuitive experience.” Within Airtable, the Dopt team will be tasked with bringing additional AI capabilities to market and developing the user experience around them.
The companies did not disclose the value of the acquisition. Prior to this exit, Oakland-based Dopt raised a $5.1 million seed round in 2022 with participation from Unusual Ventures, Designer Fund and several angel investors.