Tech firms are pitching AI-powered services to ensure that AI-generated code is reliable and useful as tools like Claude Code take over software development.

One of those firms is Vancouver-based Unblocked, which makes technology to help programmers better understand the code they’re working on—and catch any errors before they ship. “Writing code isn’t hard,” said Dennis Pilarinos, founder and CEO of Unblocked. “Knowing what code to write is hard.” 

Unblocked’s technology answers questions by drawing from internal documents and systems like GitHub, Jira and Slack. That’s particularly useful for new hires or junior developers, who need to learn a lot but may not want to ask. The company also plugs into Anysphere’s Cursor, Anthropic’s Claude and other code-generation tools, giving the AI systems the same context as human engineers so they make better suggestions and fewer mistakes. 

When developers make changes to their firm’s software, they’re supposed to document them alongside the pull requests that merge the code they’ve written with the wider code base. Many don’t, at least not well, according to Pilarinos. Unblocked attempts to fill the gaps by comparing the old code to the new and generating summaries of the changes. 

Unblocked also uses AI to review new code, identifying where it might fail or deviate from the wider code base to which it’s about to be added. Unblocked then suggests fixes. Developers would previously have needed to find the flaws and think up patches. Pilarinos said Unblocked is trying to remove “workloads that are very, very annoying for engineering teams” by simply doing the work for them.

Pilarinos started Unblocked in January 2022 after leaving Apple, which had acquired his previous startup four years earlier. He’d previously helped create Microsoft’s .NET technical framework for applications and the Silk web browser at Amazon Web Services. 

Unblocked has raised US$28 million to date, including a US$20 million Series A round in May 2025. Backers include Toronto-headquartered Radical Ventures and Bay Area investors Amplify Partners and First Round Capital, as well as former Slack CEO and B.C. native Stewart Butterfield and Facebook executive Mike Vernal.

Tidying up AI-authored code is a growing problem—partly because of the technology’s popularity amongst software engineers, but also because of the rise of vibe coding which lets amateurs who’ve never coded before spin up apps in minutes. It’s proved perhaps AI’s most effective use to date. Startups like Anthropic, Anysphere and Lovable that sell code generation tools have become some of the fastest-growing in venture history, multiplying revenue in a matter of months.

While Unblocked focuses on context and review across software development, other startups are targeting appmakers, which typically code their products on one technology platform and then run it across other mobile and desktop operating systems.

Montreal-based Uno Platform is focusing on the .NET framework that Pilarinos helped create years ago. The firm sells AI tools that developers use to build applications for large companies. 

Uno’s flagship product lets users arrange buttons, labels and other technical components to design the layout of their app, then generates the code that makes it all run. “You’re able to visually build your applications by dragging and dropping,” said CEO François Tanguay. Uno has filed for a patent on this feature, which it calls “hot design” and claims is a first for the app development space.

The firm also plans to launch a tool that generates code based on text prompts, which would compete with Cursor and Claude. “There’s tons of vibe-coding solutions,” Tanguay said. But, he claimed, with many existing tools, “you hit walls where models hallucinate or you get stuck.” 

Vibe coding can also create security, compliance and analytics issues, crucial factors for the enterprise clients to which Uno sells, Tanguay said. The firm hopes to avoid those issues by limiting how much code the AI tool can change, and requiring it to follow customers’ technical architecture. “You get the benefits of AI, while keeping control,” said Tanguay.

Uno has open-sourced some of its software, but charges for its AI tools. The firm has raised $6.5 million to date, including a $3.5-million seed round last September led by Quebec investors AQC Capital and Desjardins Capital.

Toronto-based Tempo Labs sells similar AI app development tools, but uses the React technical framework run by Meta. In October, the firm raised a US$5-million seed round from backers including Golden Ventures, Inovia Capital and General Catalyst.