Banani: Product, team and how it was built
Banani (AI UI design tool that generates editable multi-screen prototypes, Germany): 100K+ users claimed by the company, November 2026. Evidence grade E: no revenue figure was checked. Team: 2 co-founders in 2024 (About page, Vestbee); headcount not published, "a small team" from Ukraine. Launched April 2024; still running.Added 7 November 2026
- Outcome
- 100K+ users claimed by the company, November 2026
- Evidence
- E no revenue figure was checked
- Launch
- April 2024
- Status
- Still running
- Team
- 2 co-founders in 2024 (About page, Vestbee); headcount not published, "a small team" from Ukraine
- Outside funding
- EUR 850,000 pre-seed co-led by Specialist VC and Inovo VC, May 2025 (as reported by Vestbee)
- Main channel
- Not stated
What is not verified
No revenue figure was found: no payment-processor profile, no founder post with revenue on a host this site may read, and no filing. The user counts are the company's own and disagree: more than 100,000 on the home and About pages, 200,000+ on a co-founder's author page, with no date and no definition of a user. Team size is not published. The founders' LinkedIn and X posts were not read, because this site does not fetch those hosts. A reader could look for a revenue profile on a payment-verified site, a later funding announcement with figures, or an interview with the founders. This story is grade E: the business is real and its product, price and customers are described from public pages, but no revenue figure was checked. Aiolum shows it as an idea worth studying, not as proof that it makes money.
Banani is an AI UI design tool. UI, the user interface, is the screens, buttons and text that a person sees in an app or a website, and the tool generates them from a description. It makes a prototype, a set of linked screens that can be clicked like the finished product but has no working program behind it. Its pricing page, read on 7 November 2026, lists a free plan, Plus at US$20 a month (US$12 a month billed yearly) and Pro at US$50 a month (US$30 a month billed yearly).
Vlad Solomakha and Vova Parkhomchuk founded the company in 2024, its About page says, as "a small and passionate team" of designers and developers from Ukraine; Vestbee calls it a Berlin-based startup. The oldest Internet Archive copy of the site, from 19 April 2024, already offers to "Generate UI design from the text". Vestbee reported on 26 May 2025 that Banani had raised EUR 850,000 in a pre-seed round co-led by Specialist VC and Inovo VC.
No revenue figure was found. The headline is the company's own claim: its home page and About page say more than 100,000 users in November 2026, while the co-founder's author page on the same site says 200,000+ people. Neither page says how a user is counted, and no outside source has checked the numbers.
How much revenue does Banani make?
Each row shows the evidence grade and the source numbers from the list at the end of this page. The grades are explained in How Aiolum verifies.
| Fact | Value | Grade | How we know | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users claimed, November 2026 | more than 100,000 ("100k+") | D | Company's home page ("Loved by 100k+ users and companies") and About page ("loved by over 100k designers and non-designers alike"), read 7 November 2026. No date, no definition of a user, no outside check. VCNews cites the same page: "Die Unternehmensseite spricht 2026 von mehr als 100.000 Nutzern" (the company page speaks in 2026 of more than 100,000 users) (translation). | [1, 3, 5] |
| A higher count on the same site | 200,000+ people | D | Vlad Solomakha's author page on the Banani blog: "Today Banani is used by 200,000+ people". Undated, and it does not agree with the 100k+ on the home page. | [6] |
| Founders and start | Vlad Solomakha and Vova Parkhomchuk, 2024 | C | About page: "Founded by Vlad Solomakha and Vova Parkhomchuk in 2024". Vestbee: "Established in 2024 by Vlad Solomakha and Vova Parkhomchuk". The author page says Solomakha was Lead Product Designer at Preply before. | [3, 4, 6] |
| Oldest archived home page | 19 April 2024 | C | Internet Archive copy: "AI product design companion", "Generate UI design from the text", team comments, multiplayer editing and a library of app screens. | [9] |
| Team | headcount not published; "a small and passionate team" from Ukraine | C | About page. The home page FAQ says "We're a small team of passionate designers and developers". No source gives a number. | [3, 1] |
| Outside funding | EUR 850,000 pre-seed, co-led by Specialist VC and Inovo VC | C | Vestbee article by Joy Laoun, 26 May 2025. Vestbee describes Specialist VC as Estonia-based and Inovo VC as Warsaw-based, and quotes Solomakha on angels "including the first designer at WhatsApp and former employees of Canva". VCNews also dates the round to May 2025. | [4, 5] |
| Company and base | Banani Labs, Inc. (Delaware) in the terms; Berlin in the press | C | The terms of service name Banani Labs, Inc. with an address in Dover, Delaware. Vestbee and VCNews give Berlin. | [8, 4, 5] |
| Prices | Plus US$20 a month, or US$12 a month billed yearly; Pro US$50, or US$30 billed yearly | C | Pricing page, read 7 November 2026. A free plan with 12 monthly credits exists, and Enterprise is sold through sales. | [2] |
| Exports | Figma (editable layers with auto layout), HTML/CSS, images; MCP for coding agents | C | Pricing FAQ and home page FAQ. | [2, 1] |
| AI models named by the company | OpenAI GPT-5.4 for editing in Auto mode from 6 March 2026; Nano-banana for images from 11 March 2026 | C | Changelog: "The latest OpenAI model is now available on Banani" and "Replaces GPT-5.1 for editing in Auto mode"; "Currently with Nano-banana, more models + settings soon". | [7] |
| Training on user content | de-identified content of accounts created on or after 23 June 2026; never paid-plan content | C | Terms of service, last updated 23.06.2026, section "Model Training". | [8] |
| Time from the oldest archived page to the user claim | 31 months | calc | Calculated: April 2024 to November 2026. | [9, 1] |
How to read this table: grade C is the company's own page, a press article or an archived copy; grade D is a count that the company states once, with no date and no method; a "calc" value was computed on this page. No value is grade A or B, and no row is a revenue figure.
| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 | 12 monthly credits plus 3 daily credits; private projects |
| Plus | 12 | 20 | 100 monthly credits plus 10 daily credits; agent mode; unlimited Figma export; MCP and code export; 3x generation speed |
| Pro | 30 | 50 | unlimited credits; highest speed; priority support; everything in Plus |
| Enterprise | custom | custom | contact sales; SSO (SAML/SCIM); design system import; custom integration |
The page has a "Yearly (-40%)" and a "Monthly" switch; the yearly price is shown per month. One generation usually costs more than 1 credit, depending on the task. Figma export and HTML/CSS export are on paid plans only. The pricing FAQ also mentions Team plans; their seat price was not shown on the downloaded page.
When did Banani launch, and how did it grow?
From an archived text-to-UI page in April 2024 to paid Plus and Pro plans in November 2026. Each entry carries its grade.
- 2024CVlad Solomakha and Vova Parkhomchuk found Banani, according to its About page and Vestbee. [3, 4]
- 19 April 2024CThe oldest Internet Archive copy of banani.co offers an "AI product design companion" that will "Generate UI design from the text", with team comments and a library of app screens. [9]
- 26 May 2025CVestbee reports a EUR 850,000 pre-seed round co-led by Specialist VC and Inovo VC, to improve the design tool, user flow prediction and collaboration features. [4]
- March 2026CThe changelog adds bulk Figma export (4 March), OpenAI's GPT-5.4 for editing in Auto mode (6 March), an Images tab with Nano-banana and clarifying questions from the agent (11 March), and brand assets (17 March). [7]
- 23 June 2026CNew terms of service: de-identified content of accounts created from that day may be used to train Banani's own AI models; paid-plan content is never used. [8]
- November 2026DThe home and About pages claim more than 100,000 users, and the pricing page sells Plus and Pro plans. [1, 2, 3]
Why did Banani work?
Four causes, in the order they mattered. Each one is a reusable lesson.
Start from what the user has
A prompt, an image, a screenshot, a Figma link or a requirements document all work as input. The home page says Banani "generates editable, multi-screen prototypes in seconds", and the user then edits by clicking an element or by chatting with the agent.
Free to try, paid to take the work out
The free plan has a small credit allowance with a daily refill. According to the pricing FAQ, Figma export and HTML/CSS export are on paid plans only, so the moment a user wants to move a design into real work is the moment the product asks for payment.
Exports into the tools teams already use
Designs go into Figma as editable layers with auto layout, out as HTML/CSS or images, or to coding agents over MCP. Banani does not ask a team to leave Figma or its code editor; it supplies the first draft.
Many pages for search
The English sitemap lists 658 addresses, and there are sitemaps for six more languages: a page per use (wireframes, landing pages, image to Figma), comparison pages with Lovable, Stitch, Base44 and Figma Make, a glossary, a directory of AI models for UI, and free tools such as a color wheel and a screenshot editor. No source says how many customers came from search.
How it was built
These details come from the company's own changelog, pricing FAQ, terms and page source. They are grade C. [7, 2, 1, 8]
- The AI agent edits designs with OpenAI's GPT-5.4 in Auto mode from 6 March 2026, replacing GPT-5.1, according to the changelog.
- Image generation inside the app uses a model that the changelog calls Nano-banana, with "more models + settings soon".
- Designs can be pasted into Figma as editable layers with auto layout, exported as HTML/CSS or images, or read by coding agents through an MCP connection.
- Usage is metered in credits; one generation usually costs more than 1 credit, depending on the task.
- The marketing site is built with Framer: the home page carries the generator tag "Framer" and loads its images from framerusercontent.com.
- The terms of service, last updated 23 June 2026, name Banani Labs, Inc. as the company and allow training its own models on de-identified content of new free accounts.
Tools named in the sources
Each one opens its page in the Tools tab, with every story that uses it.
Who tried this before Banani, and why did they fail?
Three companies in our database of failed startups sold tools for drawing or prototyping user interfaces and died when larger design tools took their market. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.
Invision
The promiseA design and prototyping platform that connected designers' screens with developers' work.
Why it diedFigma won with real-time collaboration in the browser while InVision still asked users to refresh the page, according to the database.
Pixate
The promiseA no-code tool for building native mobile app prototypes.
Why it diedGoogle bought it, and it fell behind as web-based collaboration in Figma took over, according to the database.
Haiku
The promiseTurn high-fidelity designs and animations into code.
Why it diedFigma and Adobe XD offered the same work, and the 2020 downturn ended it, according to the database.
The failed startups come from our database of 1,749 dead startups, retold here in our own words. Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so these cards carry no evidence grade.
What changed
All three sold a separate tool for making screens and lost to a larger design tool that offered the same work. Banani has the same risk, and its own site shows it: it has pages on alternatives to Figma Make, Lovable, Stitch and Base44, products that also generate screens from a prompt.
What differs is where the work goes. Banani does not try to replace Figma: it exports to Figma as editable layers and to code through HTML/CSS and MCP, so a team keeps its tools and uses Banani for the first draft. A large language model now writes the screens, and the changelog names OpenAI's GPT-5.4 for editing, so a team of a few people can offer what once needed a design-tool company.
Can one person copy Banani now?
The product, hard. The approach, partly.
A general UI generator with a canvas, Figma export and code export took two founders, outside funding and a long list of competitors, several of them from large companies. One person can still copy the method around it: a narrow generator for one kind of screen, export into the tools a team already uses, and a credit system that keeps a free plan cheap to serve.
Where it is still open: Generators for one narrow kind of interface, such as admin dashboards, mobile onboarding screens or email templates, that export into the tool the buyer already pays for.
- 1Pick one output that teams already use, here Figma files and HTML/CSS, and make export the paid feature.
- 2Meter usage in credits with a small daily refill, so a free plan stays cheap to run.
- 3Let users start from what they have: a prompt, a screenshot, a link or a requirements document.
- 4Write a page for each use and each competitor, as Banani's 658-address English sitemap does, and translate it.
What could go wrong for Banani?
The risks are the mirror image of the causes above.
What is not verified
No revenue figure was found: no payment-processor profile, no founder post with revenue on a host this site may read, and no filing. The user counts are the company's own and disagree: more than 100,000 on the home and About pages, 200,000+ on a co-founder's author page, with no date and no definition of a user. Team size is not published. The founders' LinkedIn and X posts were not read, because this site does not fetch those hosts. A reader could look for a revenue profile on a payment-verified site, a later funding announcement with figures, or an interview with the founders.
Logos and quotes on the home page
Under the heading "In toolkits of builders from", the home page shows the logos of Spotify, Salesforce, PwC, ByteDance, Visa, Netflix, Coca-Cola, Rakuten, EY, Accenture and Lyft as images with no text, and the pricing page repeats a row headed "In toolkits of builders at". No case study or quotation on the pages read ties any of these companies to Banani; the sitemap lists two customer pages, for bbros and Smartschool, which were not read. Most home-page testimonials give a first name only.
Competition and model providers
The closest story on this site is AIDesigner, an AI design generator for websites with Stripe-verified recurring revenue of US$8.6K a month in October 2026 according to that story's sources; Banani claims more users and has outside funding but publishes no revenue. Banani's editing runs on OpenAI's GPT-5.4 and its image tab on a model the changelog calls Nano-banana (changelog, March 2026), so price or policy changes at those providers reach it directly.
Copying other products' screens
The home page says Banani can take images, screenshots or Figma links and "recreate the UI 1:1", and the site hosts a references library of screens from apps such as Tinder, Airbnb, ChatGPT and Duolingo. The pages read do not say whether the owners of those apps agreed to the library. A user who recreates another company's screens takes on that question.
Training on user content
The terms of service, last updated 23 June 2026, say that for accounts created on or after that day Banani may use de-identified user content to train its AI models, and that it never uses paid-plan content for training.
Sources
The grade next to each source is the best grade that the source can support. "Read in full" means that the text of the page was downloaded and the numbers were checked in it.
- C Banani home page, read 7 November 2026Read in full, including the FAQ and the images of the logo row. Source for the product description, the 100k+ claim, the logos, the testimonials and the exports.
- C Banani pricing page, read 7 November 2026Read in full, including the pricing FAQ. Source for the plans, prices, credits and paid-only exports.
- C Banani: About us, read 7 November 2026Read in full. Source for the founders, the 2024 start, the team from Ukraine, the 100k claim and the investors.
- C Vestbee, 26 May 2025: Ukrainian-founded startup Banani raises €850k to enhance its AI design tool (Joy Laoun)Read in full. Source for the round, the investors, the Berlin base and the founders' quote.
- D VCNews: KI-Startups in Deutschland 2026 – AI Startup ListeRead the section on Banani AI in the pipeline's download of 7 November 2026. A directory entry that cites the company page; source for the May 2025 round date and the Berlin base.
- C Banani blog: About Vlad Solomakha, author page, read 7 November 2026Read in full. Source for the co-founder's background and the 200,000+ count.
- C Banani changelog (What's new), read 7 November 2026Read the entries from 4 to 17 March 2026, the ones the page shows. Source for the models and the recent features.
- C Banani Terms of Service, last updated 23 June 2026Read the sections on the company, model training and licences. Source for the legal entity and the training clause.
- C Internet Archive copy of banani.co, 19 April 2024Read in full. The oldest copy the Wayback availability API returned. Source for the 2024 product.
- C Database of failed startups, local exportLocal export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.
Run this company? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com