This Retool company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Retool works in software, with a focus on internal tools and AI app building. It was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. Its latest valuation on record is US$3.2 billion (historical) (2022). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.
Revenue
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (third-party estimate) | About US$120 million in 2025, up about 39% | 2025 | Sacra |
| Total funding | About US$140–165 million | 2026 | Komo |
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Series C extension | US$45M | US$3.2B | Sequoia Capital (lead) | Sacra |
Retool timeline
Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.
- 2017 — Retool is founded in San Francisco by David Hsu (CEO) and Anthony Guo.
- 2022 — Series C extension: US$45M, valuing the company at US$3.2B. Investors: Sequoia Capital (lead).
- 2025 — Revenue (third-party estimate): About US$120 million in 2025, up about 39%.
- 2026 — Total funding: About US$140–165 million.
Investors
Retool is a San Francisco software company whose platform lets developers build internal business apps, such as admin panels, dashboards and approval tools, in hours rather than weeks. It was valued at US$3.2 billion in 2022 and has raised relatively little money for a company of its size. It has since repositioned around building AI apps and agents on company data. This profile covers Retool's valuation, estimated revenue, product and competition.
Retool's valuation
Retool's last private valuation is US$3.2 billion, set in 2022 in a round led by Sequoia Capital, according to Sacra, which noted it was priced at a very high multiple of revenue at the time. Retool has not announced a priced round since, and secondary sales by employees have been the main liquidity events. Total funding is estimated at only about US$140 million to US$165 million, according to Komo, which is low for a multi-billion-dollar software company and reflects its capital efficiency.
Because the valuation is from the 2022 market peak, it should be treated as historical. Software multiples fell sharply afterwards, while Retool's revenue kept growing, so today's value could be higher or lower depending on growth and how investors price AI-related software.
Revenue: what's public
Retool does not publish financial results. Sacra estimates 2025 revenue at about US$120 million, up about 39%. That is a third-party estimate, not a company figure, but it suggests Retool has grown into much of its 2022 valuation, which would be roughly 27 times that revenue, our calculation.
What Retool does
Every company needs internal software: tools for support staff to look up customers, for operations teams to approve refunds, for finance to reconcile data. Building these from scratch is slow and not a priority for engineering teams. Retool provides drag-and-drop components such as tables, forms and charts that connect directly to databases and APIs, plus the ability to write code where needed. Developers can build a working tool quickly, and Retool handles hosting, permissions and audit logs.
The product has expanded to workflows, which automate background jobs; mobile apps; a hosted database; and, from 2024, AI features. Retool now pitches itself as a place to build AI apps and agents that act on a company's own data and systems, with controls over what the AI can access. Customers range from startups to large enterprises in finance, retail and technology.
Founders
David Hsu, the chief executive, founded Retool in 2017 with Anthony Guo after going through Y Combinator. Hsu has been known for running the company frugally and for unusual moves such as offering employee liquidity through secondary sales instead of raising large primary rounds.
How AI changes Retool's market
AI coding tools such as Cursor, and app builders such as Lovable and Replit, make it easier to generate software from a prompt, which could reduce demand for low-code platforms. But internal tools need secure connections to company data, permissions and governance, which generic app builders often lack. Retool's bet is that companies will want AI-generated tools built on a platform that IT and security teams already trust. See our guides to developer tools and vibe coding companies.
Competitive landscape
Retool competes with low-code platforms such as Microsoft Power Apps, Appsmith, Budibase and OutSystems; with internal-tool builders inside larger suites; with AI app builders; and with in-house development. Its strengths are developer adoption, flexibility and a large library of integrations.
Risks
- AI disruption: AI coding tools could commoditise simple internal apps.
- Big-platform competition: Microsoft bundles Power Apps with its business software.
- Dated valuation: the US$3.2 billion figure is from 2022.
- Enterprise sales: growth increasingly depends on large customers with long buying cycles.
Questions to ask
- What is Retool's current annual recurring revenue and growth rate?
- How much revenue comes from AI products?
- Is the company profitable or cash-flow positive?
- Will it raise again, sell or pursue an IPO?
Timeline in brief
- 2017: founded; joins Y Combinator.
- 2020–2021: raises Series B and C led by Sequoia.
- 2022: valued at US$3.2 billion.
- 2024–2026: adds AI app and agent building.
Retool at a glance
Retool is a San Francisco company founded in 2017 by David Hsu and Anthony Guo that makes a platform for building internal tools, workflows and AI apps on company data. It was valued at US$3.2 billion in 2022 in a round led by Sequoia, its latest disclosed valuation, and has raised only about US$140 million to US$165 million in total. Third-party estimates put 2025 revenue at about US$120 million.
Who uses Retool
Retool's users are typically developers and technical operations teams inside companies of every size. A support team might use a Retool app to look up a customer, issue a refund and log the action in one screen; a logistics company might build a dashboard to track shipments and reassign drivers; a bank might create an internal tool for reviewing flagged transactions. These apps sit on top of the company's own databases and APIs, which is why security, access controls and audit logs matter so much to Retool's enterprise customers.
Retool offers a free tier for small teams and charges larger customers per user and for enterprise features, such as single sign-on, self-hosted deployment and advanced permissions. Self-hosting, running Retool inside a company's own cloud, is important for regulated industries that cannot send data to outside services.
Valuation context
At its 2022 valuation of US$3.2 billion, Retool was priced at a very high multiple of revenue, typical of that period. If third-party estimates of about US$120 million in 2025 revenue are close, the same valuation would be about 27 times revenue, still above the median for private software companies in 2026. The company's low total funding means existing shareholders own a large share of it, and any future raise or sale would reset the price based on current growth and on how well its AI products are doing.
What to watch
Watch for a new funding round or secondary sale that resets the valuation, AI product adoption and any IPO or acquisition interest. Compare with peers in our largest private SaaS guide.
Takeaways
Retool is a capital-efficient software company that has grown into a large share of its peak valuation. Its future depends on whether it becomes the trusted place where companies build AI tools on their own data.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.
Frequently asked questions
What does Retool do?
Retool is a software / internal tools and ai app building company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. It was founded in 2017.
What is Retool's valuation?
Retool was valued at US$3.2 billion (historical) as of 2022, according to Sacra. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds or share sales and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does Retool make?
Retool is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Figures on third-party sites are usually modelled estimates rather than numbers reported by the company.
What was Retool's latest funding round?
The most recent financing we have verified is a series c extension in 2022: US$45M, at a valuation of US$3.2B. Source: Sacra.
Who are Retool's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator and Patrick and John Collison (angels).
Who founded Retool?
Retool was founded in 2017 by David Hsu (CEO) and Anthony Guo.
Is Retool a public company?
No. Retool is a private company (private, venture backed), so its shares are not traded on a stock exchange and it isn't required to publish its financial results.
Where is Retool headquartered?
Retool is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.