Cursor’s maker Anysphere is acquiring AI CRM startup Koala to grab top talent and fuel its push against Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot in the enterprise AI coding race.
Koala co-founders and some engineers will join Anysphere to build out an enterprise readiness team. The Koala product itself won’t be integrated. Koala will shut down in September, just five months after a $15 million Series A raise.
Koala’s blog dropped the shutdown news Friday. The startup had about 30 employees and worked with clients like Vercel, Statsig, and Retool. The founders and Koala declined to comment. Cursor also did not respond. 
This deal fits a growing pattern of Cursor scooping up talent from AI startups that hit speed bumps while scaling. Anysphere recently hired Resourcely CEO Travis McPeak to lead security teams.
Cursor aims to move beyond a personal coding tool into a full enterprise platform. It’s up against Microsoft, which dominates enterprise AI coding tools through GitHub Copilot. Cursor, a standalone AI-powered IDE, beats Copilot in side-by-side tests but Microsoft’s existing enterprise sales muscle is tough to beat.
Cursor’s sales team is growing fast, targeting Fortune 500s like NVIDIA, Uber, and Adobe. The startup hit $500 million ARR in June, with a rising share from enterprise contracts.
The competition is heating up. Cursor relies heavily on Anthropic’s AI models. Anthropic’s Claude Code is growing fast. Meanwhile, Google poached Windsurf’s leadership, while Cognition scooped the rest of Windsurf’s team.
AI coding tools are now a battlefield of scale and speed. Cursor’s acquisition spree could make or break its race against giants like Microsoft and Google.
“Sources in this story requested anonymity to speak with TechCrunch about private matters. Koala and its founders did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. Cursor declined to comment.”
