Vibe coding is the hottest AI market segment.
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Legato announced today a $7 million seed round led by S Capital VC, with participation from Cerca Partners. Established last year by two experienced executives of software as a service or SaaS platforms, the startup is using AI to assist non-technical customers of software platforms in developing product extensions within the platform at significantly reduced time and costs.
“We chose the name Legato from the world of music—I play the piano—where it means playing notes smoothly and continuously, without breaks,” says Dana Rochman, Legato’s CEO. “Legato enables each user to extend and shape the platform to their own needs, without friction or handoffs.”
Shlomit Tennenboum, CTPO (L.) and Dana Rochman, CEO (R.), Legato
Legato
With the rise of the internet and cloud computing, business-to-business SaaS platforms have, to a large extent, replaced on-premise software, offering lower upfront costs, faster deployment, better scalability and accessibility and automatic upgrades. Today, almost all organizations use SaaS platforms, and the market is projected to grow from $375.57 billion in 2026 to $1,482.44 billion in 2034.
As with other business operations, processes and transactions, AI is rapidly advancing what is considered the state of the art, adding features, automating tasks, and personalizing user experiences. Legato’s solution allows SaaS platforms to embed an AI developer into their products, turning an activity typically performed by professional services or professional developers into an autonomous, in-product experience available to anyone, while the SaaS vendor maintains full governance and control. “We think of the platform as a canvas: instead of being limited to what’s pre-built, every user can create, adapt, and extend the product in their own way, seamlessly,” says Rochman.
“Democratizing” software development with AI-based vibe coding or using natural language prompts to generate code has become the hottest AI area, generating feverish excitement, competition, and discernible benefits. AI coding tools just crossed $4 billion in annual revenue, says CB Insights, with the top 3 players—GitHub Copilot, Anthropic’s Claude Code, and Cursor (from Anysphere)—capturing over 70% of the market. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the “Claude [Code] zeal has spread widely this month, even to non-engineers. Many took to social media to describe the process of building their first software program without ever having learned to code.”
Legato is benefiting from the vibe fortissimo, while targeting a very specific market and user needs. “There are external vibe-coding tools on the market,” says Rochman, “but they sit outside the platform. What sets us apart is that we’re the first to bring this capability natively into the platform itself, making it accessible to non-technical users. We’re seeing a race among major platforms like Salesforce and ServiceNow to add vibe capabilities, but today those are still largely confined to developers and admins.”
Legato is working with a range of SaaS platforms, enabling them to grow organically through their own users and partners, and generate revenue from community-driven innovation. “The real breakthrough will be the full democratization of app creation,” says Rochman, “bringing these capabilities to every user, not just the technical few. Imagine a CRM customer who wants to create a tool for personalized quote approval. With our approach, sales teams can build exactly what they need directly inside the platform, instead of going outside, where the platform loses both the customer stickiness and the data.”
I believe that in 2026, we will see many new startups with a similar business model, leveraging a “generic” AI tool (e.g., vibe coding) to address a very specific enterprise task or process while reducing reliance on costly internal or external resources.