Niteshift raises $7M to help teams avoid AI coding tool lock-in

In short: Niteshift, a new AI coding startup founded by former Datadog engineers, raised $7 million to help companies avoid getting stuck with one AI model provider.

What happened

Niteshift says it is building a “coding cloud” for AI coding tools, and it has raised a $7 million seed round. The round was led by Greylock partner Jerry Chen. The company also drew angel investors including Reid Hoffman and Datadog co-founders Olivier Pomel and Alexis Lê-Quôc.

The startup was founded by Sajid Mehmood (CEO) and Conor Branagan, both early engineers at Datadog. They argue that many companies are nervous about relying directly on major AI model makers like OpenAI and Anthropic for writing and managing software code.

Their concern is “lock-in,” which is when switching providers becomes hard later, even if prices rise or the service changes. Niteshift says its system can route work between different coding models, including GPT-style models and open-source options, based on what a project needs. It is not trying to replace popular tools like Claude Code or Codex, it says it aims to reduce dependence on any single one.

Niteshift plans to charge like a cloud provider, using per-minute usage rates, rather than selling access by “tokens” (think of tokens like metered units of text that an AI model reads and writes).

Why it matters

Software code runs banking apps, shopping sites, hospital systems, and more. If companies feel they are handing the “keys” to a single AI provider, they may look for a setup that lets them switch tools more easily later (like using a universal power adapter instead of buying one charger per device).

Source: TechCrunch AI