Airtable
Airtable is a no-code database and app-building platform used by 500,000+ organizations.
Checked
Outcome: Sold for about $1.27 billion on 5 August 2026, roughly 89% below the $11.6 billion valuation of its December 2021 round, and below the $2.6 to $4 billion secondary-market range the July evidence recorded.
Checkpoint as written on 20 July 2026: Superagent and Hyperagent enterprise adoption results become visible (Q2 2026)
The call
Airtable is profitable and still growing with enterprise customers, but its valuation has collapsed and its core product is now something AI labs and Microsoft can build in a chat window.
Airtable lets non-technical people build database apps without coding, and it makes real money (nearly half a billion a year) with healthy cash reserves. But it is becoming easier to copy or replace because Microsoft can add the same features to Excel and other tools that most big companies already pay for, and new AI systems from OpenAI and Google can now do much of what Airtable does just by reading a text description of what someone wants. The one thing that could save Airtable is if its new AI features (released in June 2025) become so useful that customers keep paying for Airtable as the best place to store and run their data, rather than switching to whatever Microsoft or OpenAI offers next.
Why
01
AI pressure: OpenAI agents, Anthropic Claude, and other text-to-app tools. These tools now let anyone build a simple database or app from a prompt, cutting into the exact job Airtable was built to do. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Microsoft (Copilot, Power Apps, Lists). Microsoft bundles similar app-building tools into Office 365, already sitting on the desktops of 80% of Fortune 100 companies Airtable serves. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Enterprise teams have years of workflows and data locked into Airtable, and switching costs plus 170% net dollar retention show it is not moving fast.
What would change this call
Airtable reports or leaks 2026 enterprise NDR figures. Below ~120% would show customers replacing Airtable with AI-native alternatives, not just using AI within it.
Superagent/Hyperagent gains or fails to gain standalone revenue traction by Q3 2026. Success shows AI-native pivot is real; absorption into OpenAI/rivals' tools shows moat cracking.
Airtable announces a new primary funding round or files an S-1. Pricing at or above $11.6B shows recovery; a down-round near $2.6-4B confirms valuation collapse is real.
Superagent/Hyperagent gains or fails to gain standalone revenue traction by Q3 2026. Success shows AI-native pivot is real; absorption into OpenAI/rivals' tools shows moat cracking.
Airtable announces a new primary funding round or files an S-1. Pricing at or above $11.6B shows recovery; a down-round near $2.6-4B confirms valuation collapse is real.
Key numbers
- ~$478M to $600M estimated ARR
- Valuation dropped from $11.6B to $2.6-4B on secondaries
- 170% enterprise net dollar retention
Named risks
- Valuation gap between $11.6B 2021 peak and $2.6-4B 2026 secondary marks could trigger down-round or 409A repricing.
- Core no-code build workflow being commoditized by generative AI text-to-app tools.
- Superagent/Hyperagent is unproven and competes against OpenAI's own agent tooling and dozens of rivals.
- No new primary funding round since December 2021 creates prolonged equity illiquidity for employees.
- Revenue growth deceleration from ~50% to ~27% YoY signals slowing momentum.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft (Copilot, Power Apps, Lists) | losing to | Bundled into Office 365 already used by 80% of Fortune 100, no structural barrier to replicating Airtable workflow, as of 2026 |
| monday.com | contesting | Explicitly markets AI Work Platform against Airtable and Smartsheet with native MCP integration, June 2026 |
| Smartsheet | gaining on | Taken private by Blackstone and Vista for $8.4B in January 2025, signaling PE consolidation appetite in category |
| OpenAI agent tooling | contesting | Airtable's Superagent (Jan 2026) competes directly against OpenAI's own agent products |
| Notion | contesting | Named as a direct alternative in AI-native app-building and agent feature race, 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is Airtable profitable in 2026?
- Airtable describes itself as cash-flow positive with roughly $700 million in cash reserves as of 2024-2026, per company statements, though it does not publicly disclose audited financials. Third-party estimates put ARR near $478-600M for 2025 with about 90% gross margins.
- Could AI replace Airtable?
- Airtable's core value, letting non-engineers build databases manually, is exactly what generative AI text-to-app tools threaten to commoditize. Airtable responded by rebranding itself AI-native on June 24, 2025 with Omni, Field Agents, and later Superagent, an unproven pivot as of early 2026.
- Who is Airtable's biggest competitor?
- Microsoft looms largest structurally via Excel, Lists, and Power Apps bundled into Office 365 already used by 80% of Fortune 100 firms. Directly, monday.com, Notion, and Smartsheet compete in the no-code space, with monday.com explicitly marketing AI features against Airtable as of June 2026.
- Will Airtable go public soon?
- As of July 2026, Airtable had not filed an S-1. Prediction markets as of June 26, 2026 gave roughly 17% odds to a near-term IPO announcement, with market pricing implying no listing before 2028-2030.
- Has Airtable had layoffs?
- Yes. Airtable cut about 254 employees (20%) in December 2022 and 237 employees (27%) in September 2023, totaling roughly 491 cumulative layoffs from a peak headcount near 1,270, according to Wikipedia and Computerworld reporting.
- What is Airtable's enterprise net dollar retention?
- Airtable reports approximately 170% net dollar retention in its enterprise segment as of late 2025, with enterprise revenue growing roughly 100% year over year, according to company-sourced figures cited in industry writeups.
Timeline
- 2026-01-27Airtable launches Superagent, its first standalone product brand in 13 years
- 2025-12Launches Airtable for ChatGPT as an OpenAI launch partner
- 2025-10-13Acquires AI agent startup DeepSky, hires ex-OpenAI engineer David Azose as CTO
- 2025-06-24CEO Howie Liu announces company 'refounding' as AI-native, unveils Omni and Field Agents
- 2025-04-08Launches Airtable Assistant, a conversational AI collaborator, in beta
- 2025-01Peer Smartsheet completes $8.4B take-private by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners
- 2024-03-26Launches Airtable AI broadly to all paying customers after 1,200-org beta
- 2023-09-15Second layoff round cuts 237 employees (about 27% of workforce)
- 2022-12-09First layoff round cuts 254 employees (about 20% of workforce)
- 2021-12-12Closes $735M Series F at approximately $11.6-11.7B valuation
Revision history
5 August 2026
Outcome posted: Sold for about $1.27 billion, roughly 89% below its 2021 valuation. Assessment confirmed.
20 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- How much has Airtable raised? (2026-06)
- $478M Est. ARR (2026-07-02)
- Airtable revenue, valuation & funding (2025-08)
- Airtable Business Model (2026-06-20)
- About Us
- Airtable Secures $735M (2021-12-12)
- Airtable jumps into the AI agent game with Superagent (2026-01-27)
- Sell or Invest in Airtable Stock Pre-IPO (2026-07-02)
- When will Airtable officially announce an IPO (2026-06-26)
- Airtable (2026-06-03)
- Airtable Helps Enterprises Power Critical Work with AI
- Builders, Meet Your New AI Assistant (2025-04-08)