Paper has raised $34 million in Series A financing backed by Accel and ICONIQ to build a design platform for software teams working with artificial intelligence and coding agents. The round also included Designer Fund, Michael Grinich of WorkOS, Anton Osika of Lovable, and engineers and designers from Anthropic and OpenAI. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate product development, expand its workforce, and deepen its investment in AI-native design workflows.
A New Approach to Design Software
Founded by Stephen Haney, Paper is developing a professional design environment that connects designers, engineers, software repositories, data, and AI agents in a shared workspace. The company argues that many existing design tools were created for workflows in which people handled most production tasks, while modern software teams increasingly rely on agents to generate and modify code. Paper aims to address that shift by making design work easier to translate into production systems without lengthy handoffs between creative and engineering teams.
Built on Web Standards
A central feature of Paper’s platform is its use of HTML and CSS rather than a closed, proprietary canvas format. This allows visual designs to connect more directly with production code and gives coding agents a clearer way to interpret layouts, components, styles, and design decisions. By using common web standards as a shared language, Paper is positioning its software as a bridge between visual creation and the increasingly automated process of building digital products.
Paper Desktop and Agent Workflows
The company’s momentum accelerated after the early 2026 launch of Paper Desktop, which turned the design canvas into a connected environment for people and AI agents. The application can link with coding tools and repositories, allowing teams to synchronize design systems, components, content, and other information throughout product development. Paper says this continuous connection can reduce the friction that often occurs when designs are transferred to engineers and later changed during implementation.
Early Commercial Traction
Paper reported that its annual recurring revenue has increased twenty-fivefold since the desktop product launched, although it did not disclose its current revenue. The company has also appeared on Ramp’s Fastest Growing Companies list for four consecutive months and is used by organizations including Ramp, Lovable, Vercel, PostHog, Quartr, and Y Combinator. This adoption suggests that software companies building with AI are seeking design tools that integrate more closely with code and agent-driven development.
Investor Support
Accel partner Dan Levine described Paper as taking a different approach to design software by building for collaboration between people and AI rather than human-only workflows. ICONIQ partner Mariano Payano said the boundary between design and engineering is becoming less distinct, increasing the value of platforms that connect the two disciplines. The participation of established software investors, a design-focused fund, founders, and technical professionals gives Paper capital and industry relationships as it expands.
The $34 million Series A gives Paper additional resources to pursue its vision of a design platform built for software creation in the agentic era. By connecting visual work with web standards, production code, data, and AI tools, the company is attempting to narrow the gap between design decisions and implemented products. Its next stage will depend on converting early adoption and rapid reported growth into a durable position within the broader design and software development market.