Statement from Manpreet Ratia, CEO of Builder.ai

June 24, 2025

Statement reproduced from Manpreet Ratia about Builder.ai:-

BUILDER.AI: LET’S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. THE AI WAS REAL. PERIOD.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen a lot of noise, sensational headlines, and misinformed commentary suggesting that Builder.ai “faked AI” or misled the world about its technology.

Let me say this clearly and unequivocally: Those allegations are FALSE.

👉 THE AI WAS REAL.

Builder.ai built a real AI-powered platform - combining LLM models and our own orchestration layers - to automate meaningful parts of the software assembly process.

It wasn’t a gimmick. It wasn’t smoke and mirrors. It was a sophisticated, production-grade system that:

Used generative AI to build features and write code
Integrated predictive ML for smarter cost and timeline estimation
Automated feature mapping and software delivery workflows
Combined human oversight, where needed, to ensure quality and scalability

This was real technology solving real problems - not just for small businesses, but for some of the world’s largest, most sophisticated enterprises. These were customers who know their software and validate it rigorously. They stayed with us because the tech worked. Independent technical reviews in the past and as recent as two weeks ago confirmed the system was solid, scalable, and effective.

👉 THE TEAM DESERVE RESPECT.

Our AI, engineering, and product teams - who are among the best I’ve ever worked with [and I have worked with world class teams at Amazon and Flipkart] - poured their energy, passion, and brilliance into building something extraordinary. They don’t deserve to have their work diminished by misinformation. They built something real. And it worked. Period.

👉 FINANCIAL CHALLENGES WERE REAL - A LEGACY INHERITED.

I inherited a business that had suffered from financial mismanagement and poor Ops discipline. That part is not in dispute. There were real issues.

But the way we handled it matters.

We acted with openness and transparency from day one.
The board, the investors, [Jungle Ventures Lakestar Qatar Investment Authority Insight Partners] and the leadership team [Vahé Torossian Dave Keefer Craig Saunders] responded quickly and decisively as soon as the issues came to light.
Bear in mind the leadership team was onboarded late last year. The investors had a plan.
We didn’t hide. We didn’t deflect. We leaned in and we did the hard work.

And people should not underestimate the scale and intensity of the effort it took to stabilize the business and protect customers.

We rebuilt financial controls.
We restructured operations.
We renegotiated with stakeholders including all those we owed significant $$ to. And they were incredibly supportive [Amazon Microsoft] that is because they saw the tech first hand and believed.

The turnaround was real. It was only possible because the technology worked. Without a solid, scalable platform, none of this would have been achievable.

👉 MISFORTUNE OF LOST SUPPORT.

While we worked tirelessly to execute the turnaround, unfortunately, our senior creditors lost faith, in us at Builder.ai

Did they have the legal right to act as they did? Yes.

But it remains a misfortune that despite signing up to support the turnaround in good faith, in March 2025, when the transition was put into place they lost confidence within two months.

In the end, they chose to walk away - not because the technology failed, but because of the financial history we inherited. They choose to take their money out.

That was their decision to make, but it’s a shame. The story could have ended differently. Turnaroounds need more than just a plan - they need ALL their partners to believe in them just a little longer.

👉 INVESTORS OR PARTNERS?

Microsoft wasn’t just an investor - they were a partner. In terms of $$ invested they were not even the top 7 !

But as recently as May 2025, Microsoft was doubling down. Despite a they being the headline on every “bad” news article at Builder since Jan last year!

They saw the technology, they validated the potential, and they invited Builder.ai to the exclusive Microsoft CEO Summit in May 2025, yes May of this year - an event reserved for companies delivering real, scalable innovation, and only 125 fortune 500 companies globally.

These are not the actions of a partner walking away from unproven tech. These are the actions of a global leader who believed in what we were building.

👉 TURN AROUND WAS REAL.

We executed a complex, high-pressure business turnaround.

We kept the platform running.
We kept delivering for customers.
We kept the core technology intact under extraordinary strain.

And none of this would have been possible without the incredible technology team - a team that moved fast, pivoted, and delivered tangible results at pace.

Operating costs were reduced by over 50%.
Operational efficiency improved by 3x.
The customer pipeline and order book hit all-time highs.
All this is 75 days.

You simply can’t achieve that with broken technology.

👉 LET US STOP TRADING ON MISFORTUNE.

Yes - the business suffered from past financial mismanagement. Yes - we had to work through the consequences. Yes - the creditors had the right to act.

But that does not give anyone permission to diminish the work of the brilliant builders, engineers, product teams, and AI specialists who created something genuinely valuable.

👉 THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT FAKE AI.

It’s a story about a company that had to clean up its financial past - and did. It’s a story about resilience. About real technology. About a team that never gave up.

Let’s get the story straight. Let’s respect the builders.

(Note: statement has been reformatted for this site)