In today’s fast-paced tech landscape, developer tooling is evolving rapidly, particularly with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). Startups that facilitate AI integration into everyday workflows are rapidly gaining traction, and n8n – pronounced "enay-ten" – is at the forefront of this movement. The Berlin-based startup has garnered significant attention following its shift to an AI-centric workflow automation platform in 2022, achieving remarkable revenue growth of 5X, with a doubling in the last two months alone.

In a major boost for its future, n8n has announced a successful funding round that raised €55 million ($60 million), pushing its valuation to approximately €250 million ($270 million) as reported by TechCrunch. With over 3,000 enterprise clients and close to 200,000 active users, n8n is now poised to use this Series B investment to enhance its technology and expand its market presence, particularly in the lucrative U.S. market, which represents more than half of its user base.

Leading this funding round is Highland Europe, with additional investments from HV Capital and previous backers like Sequoia, Felicis, and Harpoon. Notably, Sequoia led n8n’s seed round in 2020, while Felicis was instrumental in its Series A funding in 2021.

Founded in 2019, n8n quickly arose as a preferred choice among developer teams seeking low-code and no-code automation solutions that simplify the integration of diverse applications with minimal coding requirements. Furthermore, n8n has earned a dedicated following by championing the "fair code" concept—an evolution of open-source programming that ensures fair compensation for the creators behind the free software utilized.

Under the leadership of founder and CEO Jan Oberhauser, n8n emphasizes its commitment to giving back to the open-source community, a philosophy reflected in its impressive GitHub presence of over 70,000 stars. However, the company’s embrace of AI technologies has served as its primary growth driver.

Generative AI complements automation, and as similar companies like Tines and Workato have shown, the trend toward integrating AI tools into automation platforms is unmistakable. One of the main benefits of this shift is that it lessens the technical burden on users. Oberhauser predicted this wave of AI influence about 18 months ago, indicating a clear intention to integrate these capabilities into n8n’s offerings. “We want to reduce the effort developers spend creating automations by enabling natural language instructions,” he explained.

With a new approach, users can describe their workflow needs in plain English—such as “get information from X and send it to Y”—rather than writing complex code. This innovation is designed to support various large language models (LLMs), allowing users to easily incorporate different AI technologies within n8n’s platform.

Despite initial sluggish adoption rates for its AI-powered features, n8n experienced an unexpected surge of interest last year, coinciding with heightened excitement around AI capabilities in software development. The convergence of trends— renewed investor interest in AI startups and users' increasing demand for practical AI applications—has helped position n8n as a significant player in the automation space.

As Highland’s general partner David Blyghton put it, “While everyone is eager to tap into AI's potential, many are grappling with finding viable applications. n8n’s design and scalability empower users to quickly adopt and utilize the technology.”

Now, with about 75% of n8n’s customers actively using its AI tools, Oberhauser believes the tide has turned. The future of workflow automation is here, and n8n is aptly set to lead the charge in harnessing AI for tangible efficiency gains. Will n8n dominate the landscape and define the future of fair-code automation? Only time will tell, but the stage is certainly set for an exciting journey ahead!