Singapore-based front-end development platform Locofy aims to streamline the often time-consuming process of translating Figma and AdobeXD prototypes into functional code. The company, backed by Accel, has introduced a new tool called Lightning, built on its Large Design Models (LDMs), with the goal of significantly reducing the workload for developers.
Lightning, functioning as a Figma plug-in, is designed to automate approximately 80% of front-end development tasks. Locofy's founders, Honey Mittal and Sohaib Muhammed, draw parallels between Lightning and OpenAI's pioneering of Large Language Models (LLMs) before the widespread adoption of models like ChatGPT. They identify a critical need for such a tool due to the shortage of developers leading to revenue loss for companies and burnt-out coders grappling with overwhelming workloads.
The tool, initially launching for Figma, targets websites and web apps, allowing developers at lean startups to concentrate on core business activities and market strategies. Locofy plans to expand Lightning's compatibility to other design tools, including AdobeXD, Penpot, Sketch, Wix, and potentially Canva and Notion later this year.
Locofy invested over $1 million in developing Lightning, focusing on startups and customer-centric enterprises with small teams looking to expedite front-end development. Lightning, alongside its LDMs, was developed in-house and trained on a dataset incorporating millions of designs.
Locofy initially introduced Locofy Classic in 2021, which involved several manual steps for design optimization. Lightning simplifies this process into a one-click solution, automating tagging, layer grouping, responsiveness, components, and class names. The company utilizes various AI-based techniques, including image-based neural networks, multimodal transformers, graph-based neural networks, sequence-to-sequence models, stack-pointer networks, heuristic models, and LLMs.
After the front-end code generation, users can review it through an interactive preview and fine-tune the code before exporting. Locofy, founded in 2021, has secured $7.5 million in funding from investors like Accel and Northstar Ventures. Looking ahead, the company plans to expand its platform to include tools for building design systems, utilizing public UI libraries, and integrating back ends with features such as GitHub Copilot and CI-CD. Additionally, Locofy intends to introduce an AI assistant for designers and offer hosting and deployment services for complete applications. Currently in free beta for two years, Locofy plans to monetize its services in 2024, with pricing based on factors like the number of screens or components converted to code and regularly maintained with AI.
