The Monzo mafia is back at it, with former co-founder Jonas Templestein and ex-VP of architecture Oliver Beattie seeking funding for a new startup focused on developing generative AI coding tools.
Named Nustom, the startup’s pitch suggests that in the next decade, most software will be created by individuals without technical backgrounds, collaborating with AI. They envision a future where tasks that currently require weeks or months and a team of specialists will be completed in minutes and at a low cost, enabling users to create custom tools tailored to their specific needs rather than relying on generic products.
Templestein left Monzo in December after a nine-year tenure, while Beattie departed in 2021 after six years, subsequently working with fintech companies like Imprint and Pleo. The founding team also includes Maria Campbell, the former head of people at Monzo and former COO of challenger bank Griffin, along with engineering leads Fred Jonsson, a former staff engineer at Monzo, and Eugenio Marchiori from Google.
Nustom plans to launch by creating SaaS products built on foundational models developed by organizations like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral. The company will initially employ human engineers to ensure software quality until their AI agents are dependable enough to operate autonomously.