Singapore-based startup Locofy has unveiled a new AI-powered tool called Lightning that aims to save hours of work through a one-click coding tool. This tool instantly turns Figma and AdobeXD prototypes into code.
Lightning is based on Locofy’s in-house Large Design Models (LDMs) that have been trained on a dataset including millions of designs. It works as a Figma plugin and can automate close to 80% of frontend development, according to the startup’s founders Honey Mittal and Sohaib Muhammed.
The two founders draw parallels between their innovation and OpenAI’s breakthrough with Large Language Models (LLMs) that gained widespread recognition through ChatGPT. They identified a gap in the market for a solution like Lightning, driven by the developer deficit that leads to revenue losses for businesses and overworked coders struggling with heavy workloads.
According to the founders, Lightning will allow developers working in lean startups to focus on running their company and going to market instead of focusing on hours’ worth of workload.
Initially, the launch of this tool is set for Figma, targeting websites and web applications. As the year progresses, there are plans to extend its availability to a broader range of design platforms, including AdobeXD, Penpot, Sketch, and Wix, and potentially expand to include Canva and Notion.
Mittal reveals that the company has funneled more than $1 million into the development of Lightning. The primary objective is to cater to startups and customer-oriented businesses with smaller teams, aiming to boost their front-end development efficiency.
Established in 2021, Locofy has successfully secured $7.5 million in funding from notable investors like Accel and Northstar Ventures.
Looking ahead, the company intends to broaden the scope of its platform. This expansion will go beyond the current design-to-code functionality to encompass features like building design systems, utilizing public UI libraries, and enhancing backend development for frontends with integrations, including Github Copilot and continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI-CD) tools.
Additionally, the company is planning to introduce an AI assistant specifically tailored for designers, as well as hosting and deployment services to facilitate the hosting of complete applications.
