In 2023, co-founders Karim Jouini and Jihed Othmani sold their expense management startup Expensya to Swedish procurement software firm Medius in what is widely considered to be one of the largest acquisitions of an African startup. Some sources say the sum was just over $120 million, although deal terms were not disclosed.

Success achieved, both founders swore off entrepreneurship, never intending to do another startup again and Jouini became a CTO role in the merged software company, with other acquisitions spanning three continents.

But the pull of a new technological wave – generative AI – and the thought that they may be able to  build something even bigger with them have drawn them back in.

The two have now co-founded Thunder Code, a generative AI-powered software testing platform, which has already secured $9 million in seed funding, they told TechCrunch.

“It’s pretty crazy because we promised not to do another company because Expensya was too hard,” Jouini told TechCrunch. “But I think it’s like when people have two kids, they forget how hard the first one was. This new venture is less than six months old and already super intense, but we’re fired up. We’re convinced this is unicorn material.”

Jouini says his transition into head of technology at Medius reignited a spark he missed after years as Expensya’s frontman. As he oversaw the integration of six companies across three continents, he saw firsthand how generative AI could reshape the software industry. Testing was a universal problem, no matter the product, a realization that seeded the idea for Thunder Code.

Thunder Code tackles slow, manual testing with AI-powered “agents” that mimic human testers. These agents simulate QA processes, catch subtle UI and UX issues, and learn from feedback.

Determined to avoid Expensya’s early missteps, Jouini prioritized speed. “We shipped our first MVP in week six, and now the product is much more solid six months in than Expensya was in year four,” he said. This reflects a widely held belief in startup land that fast feedback trumps perfect plans.

Thunder Code is already gaining traction, with paying customers and pilot programs across the U.S., Canada, France, and Tunisia. The company partners with delivery managers, QA shops, and developer teams eager to test and ship faster. Its current focus is web application testing, with plans to expand into mobile, desktop, and API testing by late 2025.

In addition to speed, Jouini’s second rodeo also applies other hard-earned lessons from Expensya, like focusing on core features and getting the best talent as soon as possible. He’s unapologetic about early dilution, as it relates to investing in top talent. “A lot of African entrepreneurs are scared to dilute capital because they want to keep 100%. We believe that if we create a unicorn while diluting ourselves, that’s good value,” he remarked.

Jouini believes, however, that AI will let Thunder Code generate 10 times the value with fewer people, echoing the broader sentiment shift toward leaner AI-powered teams.

Nevertheless, Jouini admits the jump from expense management to software developer tools was a leap despite the pain points feeling familiar. Yet, he sees software testing as a bigger, more complex market, projected to exceed $100 billion by 2027, still dominated by legacy code-based platforms like Tricentis and BrowserStack, that may be slow to adapt. He believes Thunder Code’s fast execution with AI gives it an edge even against similar new agentic products.

Thunder Code, headquartered in Paris with an office in Tunis, joins an increasingly crowded market of startups all attempting to do same with entrants ranged from UIPath to startups like Jetify, Nova AI.

It helps that his co-founder, Othmani, brings deep expertise in generative AI, having built internal AI tools at Expensya years before ChatGPT made waves. Their complementary skills and the $9 million raised in six months position Thunder Code to move fast and capture market share, Jouini said.

The funding round includes familiar faces from Expensya’s cap table, including Silicon Badia and Jaango Capital, along with Titan Seed Fund and strategic angels like Roxanne Varza (Director of Station F) and Karim Beguir, CEO of Instadeep, Africa’s biggest AI startup. Former and current Expensya employees who cashed out during the acquisition have also invested. “Some of our investors are actually Expensya employees and I’m glad it worked out that way,” said Jouini.