GitPod set out to kill "works on my machine." Click a button and get a fully configured development environment in the cloud, no local setup, no dependency hell. About 2 million developers used it. Then AI coding agents changed the game, so in September 2025 GitPod renamed itself Ona and rebuilt around cloud environments where AI agents write and review code. It worked fast enough that OpenAI bought it for its Codex team, a deal that closed in August 2026. From dev environments to AI agent infrastructure in one pivot.
Founded
2020
HQ
Remote (Germany origin)
Total Raised
$41 million
Founder
Sven Efftinge, Moritz Eysholdt, Johannes Landgraf, Christian Weichel
Status
Renamed Ona (2025), acquired by OpenAI (2026)
Verified Sep 2026
Website
ona.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
The GitPod team came out of TypeFox, a German developer tools company in Kiel behind the Theia cloud IDE framework. Sven Efftinge and his colleagues realized the biggest pain point was not the editor itself but the environment.
Developers spent hours configuring machines, installing dependencies and debugging "it works on my machine" problems.
They launched GitPod to provide instant, automated cloud development environments. One click from a GitHub or GitLab repo opened a fully configured workspace with dependencies installed and tools ready.
Johannes Landgraf, who became CEO, and CTO Christian Weichel later led the company through its rename to Ona in 2025 and its sale to OpenAI in 2026.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
GitPod started as freemium: a free tier of monthly cloud hours, paid plans for more hours and bigger workspaces, and enterprise contracts with self-hosted and dedicated options. As Ona it shifted toward enterprise contracts for running AI coding agents inside a customer's own cloud, with governance and security controls.
It said enterprise annual recurring revenue quadrupled year over year before the rename. OpenAI acquired the company in 2026, and existing customer commitments continue to be supported.
THE PRODUCTS
Before 2025: cloud development environments, instant pre-configured workspaces defined in a .gitpod.yml file, with prebuilds and support for VS Code and JetBrains, plus a self-hosted enterprise option. As Ona (since September 2025): a platform for running software engineering AI agents in secure, sandboxed cloud environments, with VS Code in the browser and access from phone, tablet or laptop.
Since August 2026 the technology is part of OpenAI's Codex team.
HOW THEY GREW
GitPod grew through open source community adoption and one-click integrations with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket, where a "Gitpod" button on a repo launched a ready workspace. It later moved upmarket to banks and pharmaceutical companies that wanted cloud development under tight security.
In 2025 it bet the company on AI agents, renaming itself Ona and claiming its own agents were producing most of its merged code. That bet ended in a sale to OpenAI in 2026.
THE HARD PART
GitHub Codespaces, backed by Microsoft and GitHub's enormous distribution, was a direct competitor, and AWS stopped taking new Cloud9 customers in 2024, a sign of how tough the cloud IDE market was. Convincing developers to give up their carefully configured laptops proved hard.
Then AI coding tools threatened to make the whole category a feature. GitPod's answer was to reinvent itself as Ona, an AI agent platform, and ultimately to sell to OpenAI in 2026 rather than compete alone.
MONEY TRAIL
Seed
2020 · Led by Speedinvest
$3M raised
Early-stage round
2021 · Led by General Catalyst
$13M raised
Series A
2022 · Led by Tom Preston-Werner
$25M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Speedinvest led the $3 million seed in October 2020, with Crane Venture Partners and Vertex Ventures US. General Catalyst led a $13 million round in April 2021.
GitHub founder Tom Preston-Werner led the $25 million Series A in November 2022. Total funding was about $41 million.
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