UXPin, Which Helps People Design and Code at the Same Time, Gets Funded

UXPin, which makes a Web-based design tool of the same name, has raised $1.6 million.

The product is meant to extend the design process to non-designers and to help create finished coded products rather than flat images.

“This is not another prototyping or wire-framing tool,” said UXPin CEO Marcin Treder. “We are extending to final, pixel-perfect design.”

“UXPin is an HTML-based tool,” he added. “It moves code underneath the interface. With Photoshop, somebody needs to take the PSD file and recode it right from the beginning.”

Today, 1,400 companies pay to use UXPin, including Microsoft, USA Today, NBC and Red Bull, according to Treder. The product costs $14.99 per user per month.

UXPin’s funding comes from Andreessen Horowitz, Freestyle Capital, IDG Ventures, Mansour Salame, Innovation Nest and a ton of angel investors, including Gil Penchina, Eric Ries, Jeff Huber, Joshua Schachter and Julia Popowitz. The company had previously raised $230,000 from investors in Poland.

But it wasn’t an easy round to raise at first, said Treder, saying that he thinks it is his Polish background — “We are too down to earth, too revenue-focused” — that didn’t jibe with the Silicon Valley mentality. Eventually though, the funding came flowing in, with significant demand for being one of the first AngelList syndicate investment options.

Treder is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a team of 20 back in Poland. He said he believes UXPin is the first Polish tech startup to get Silicon Valley funding, though others such as Estimote have followed.

The first version of UXPin was actually a physical sticky notes product, as covered on AllThingsD fully three years ago.

Next for the startup is to expand its team and to add more community and education features, Treder said.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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