Berlin-based startup Banani has secured €850,000 in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Specialist VC and Inovo VC to reinvent the product design process for the post-AI era.
- Established in 2024 by Vlad Solomakha and Vova Parkhomchuk, Banani develops an AI tool that converts text input into interactive UI prototypes.
- It allows users to describe interface ideas in plain language, generate multi-screen designs, and make changes using natural language prompts.
- The tool includes options for sharing via link, real-time collaboration, and exporting to formats such as Figma or code. It is built for product managers, developers, startup teams, and designers working with limited time or resources.
“We also have great angels, including the first designer at WhatsApp and former employees of Canva. It was a long process, hundreds of calls, but in the end, we found partners who really believe in our vision and understand the product,” commented Vlad Solomakha, co-founder of Banani AI.
- The firm was one of the top 10 startups at Vestbee’s Winter Pitch, an event powered by HubSpot that connects leading European startups with venture capitalists and angel investors to help secure funding and support growth.
Details of the deal
- The pre-seed round was co-led by Specialist VC, an Estonia-based €50 million venture fund investing in Baltic startups from pre-seed to Series A stages with a focus on B2B, SaaS, fintech, and marketplaces, and Inovo VC, a Warsaw-based venture capital firm that leads a $2 million pre-seed investment in New York’s SplxAI.
- Banani will use the €850,000 funding to enhance its AI design tool, improve user flow prediction, expand collaboration features, and build advanced layers connecting user insights, aiming to become a central product-design hub for teams.
