Key Takeaways
• 18-year-old Arlan Rakhmetzhanov raised $850,000 in pre-seed funding for his AI startup, Nia.
• Nia is designed as an AI-powered teammate for developers, built to understand and work within entire codebases.
• The startup has backing from LocalGlobe, an early investor in companies like Robinhood and Figma.
• Nia is live in beta and integrates with platforms like Slack and Cursor to assist developers via API or chat.
Nia, a newly launched artificial intelligence startup, has secured $850,000 in pre-seed funding, led by LocalGlobe.
The company was founded by 18-year-old entrepreneur Arlan Rakhmetzhanov, who built the AI-based coding assistant to address limitations he experienced with existing large language model (LLM) tools in software development.
Product Overview: What Nia Offers to Developers
Unlike most AI code assistants that operate within limited context windows, Nia is built to function as a persistent and context-aware collaborator, capable of understanding entire codebases.
• Maintains awareness of project-wide file structure and logic
• Reduces code duplication and false suggestions by referencing past code
• Accessible via API, Slack, and Cursor for streamlined integration with existing workflows
Rakhmetzhanov developed Nia to tackle common frustrations he encountered with existing tools, such as hallucinations and a lack of project context.
“Every AI coding assistant I tried forgot where things lived in my repository – spitting out files that didn’t follow my patterns, duplicating logic, or hallucinating.”— Arlan Rakhmetzhanov, Founder of Nia
According to the founder, the vision behind Nia is to remove friction from software development by enabling engineers to skip repetitive tasks while maintaining consistency across projects.
Founder Background: From Kazakhstan to Pre-Seed Success
Rakhmetzhanov is a self-taught programmer from Kazakhstan who began building and shipping software products in his teenage years. He later worked with a professor at Stanford University, further honing his skills and insights into software tooling gaps.
His background and product-first approach drew the attention of LocalGlobe, which led the startup’s pre-seed round.
“Arlan is one of the most driven founders we’ve met – teaching himself to code, shipping multiple products, cold-emailing his way into Stanford, and building Nia entirely on his own before even turning 18.”— Emma Phillips, Partner at LocalGlobe
LocalGlobe has previously invested in high-profile startups like Figma, Wise, and Robinhood, lending weight to Nia’s early traction in the AI developer tooling space.
Platform Availability and Use Cases
Nia is currently available in beta, with early users able to integrate it directly into their workflows through chat platforms and development environments. It functions autonomously to guide engineers through large codebases and offer actionable support.
• Enables codebase-level understanding, not just single-file assistance
• Streamlines debugging, refactoring, and documentation lookup
• Offers collaborative AI functionality, reducing developer workload
This approach places Nia in a distinct position compared to traditional LLM-based code assistants, which typically operate in reactive or prompt-only modes.
The newly secured capital will be used to scale Nia’s infrastructure, refine its capabilities, and expand the user base in preparation for a broader launch beyond beta.
With growing demand for more capable AI development tools, Nia positions itself as a developer-first solution that prioritizes project memory and consistency—key pain points in modern software engineering.
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