Browser Use, an Open Source Alternative to OpenAI Operator, Raises $17 Million

Browser Use, a tool that helps AI agents connect with the browser, recently announced that it has raised $17 million. The funding round was led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from A Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham, Liquid 2, SV Angel, Pioneer Fund, and others.

To address the announcement, Gregor Žunič, co-founder of Browser Use, said on X, “A few months ago, Browser Use was just a…weekend experiment to see if LLMs could navigate the web like humans. In just four days, we built an initial prototype and launched it on Hacker News. Build stuff, move fast, break things.”

The company was founded by Magnus Müller and Žunič earlier this year. Browser Use was part of Y Combinator’s 2025 winter batch, as reported by Tech Crunch. It was launched right after OpenAI launched the Operator.

The announcement highlighted that Browser Use is building an infrastructure that enables AI to interact with the web as seamlessly as humans do. It explained that most automation solutions rely on vision-based approaches, attempting to see the web like a human. The funding will further accelerate the vision. 

Browser Use added that the existing methods are slow, expensive, and unreliable. The company claims to have a different approach, which is to convert website interfaces into structured text that LLMs can process deterministically.

Browser Use mentioned that its approach is faster, more efficient, and offers more precise interaction with UI elements like buttons, dropdowns, and input fields. It also added that it offers a more reliable system that avoids the errors of pixel-based navigation.

With AI advancements, companies have increasingly been taking the open source approach while building something. Recently, Docker’s founder seemingly built an open source alternative to Claude Code.