Stephen Haney Co-founded Paper Scores $34M in Series A Funding

The round also saw participation from Designer Fund, Michael Grinich, Anton Osika, and engineers and designers from Anthropic and OpenAI.

The company will use the funding to speed up product development, grow its team, and invest further in AI-powered tools and workflows for designers.

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AI is changing how software is built, but design workflows have changed very little. Paper is creating a new design platform that helps designers and engineers work together more easily through a shared workflow. The platform also brings AI directly into the design process, helping teams create, collaborate, and build products faster.

Unlike traditional design tools, Paper uses HTML, and CSS to create designs that connect directly with production code. This makes it easier for developers and AI-tools to use designs without extra work. By bringing design and engineering together, Paper reduces handoff delays, and helps teams move from ideas to finished products much faster.

Since launching Paper Desktop in early 2026, the company has grown quickly. The platform lets designers, developers and AI agents work together in one shared workspace by connecting design, code and data in real time.

Paper has increased its annual recurring revenue (ARR) 25 times since launch and has appeared on Ramp's Fastest Growing Companies list for four straight months. The platform is already used by leading companies such as Ramp, Lovable, Vercel, PostHog, Quartr, and Y Combinator.

"Paper is defining a new category with a fundamentally new approach to design software," said Dan Levine, Partner, Accel. "Most design tools were built for a world where humans did all the work. Paper is built for a world where humans and AI create together, and is already seeing strong adoption among some of the world's most influential technology companies.”

"The line between design and engineering is blurring, elevating the importance of taste. We believe Paper is the first canvas built for where software is going, and some of the most quality-obsessed teams we know are pulling it in from all directions. That kind of organic word of mouth is rare," said Mariano Payano, Partner, ICONIQ.

"We want to help designers and creatives do deep, meaningful work, at a pace that supports their businesses in the agentic era. Helping design teams keep up with agentic workflows is our north star at Paper," said Stephen Haney, Founder and CEO of Paper. "Designers are being asked to move faster than ever, yet they're still working with tools built for a different time.

"AI changes everything, including design tools," said Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel. "Paper was born at the perfect time to leverage intelligence on demand, which creative people can influence and channel to design the next big thing."

About Paper

Founded in 2024 by Stephen Haney, Paper is an AI powered design platform built for the new era of software development. The platform helps designers and engineers work together in one shared workspace, combining professional design tools with AI powered workflows to speed up product development.

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