DryMerge connects apps effortlessly, promising automation simplicity

Today, platforms designed to integrate apps that typically don’t work together have been around for quite some time (e.g., Zapier), but they remain complicated for users without technical skills. Generative AI has lowered the entry barrier to these tools, but even with AI, some programming knowledge is required for maximum efficiency. Developers Sam Brashears and Edward Fraser experienced these challenges firsthand while working at companies like Meta and Stripe. They believed generative AI models could address the main issue—data transformation between APIs.

This belief led to the creation of DryMerge—a platform aimed at simplifying automation through a chatbot interface. The concept is simple: users describe a task, such as "send a Slack notification when I receive a new email," and DryMerge sets up the necessary apps on its own.

Fraser emphasizes that the platform is designed for non-technical users. "We want non-IT specialists to automate workflows without complex tools," he says. The interface of DryMerge resembles ChatGPT: users interact with a text bot, and their results can be reviewed later. The platform supports a growing range of popular apps like Gmail, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Discord.

While DryMerge shows promise in setting up automations, it isn't without issues. During testing, some challenges arose—sometimes the platform ignored key details in requests, or the bot stopped responding altogether. For instance, I couldn’t get it to automatically add contacts from Gmail to Google Calendar, but DryMerge successfully copied posts from X into Discord.

Fraser acknowledges that the platform needs further refinement, but he remains optimistic. The team plans to fix bugs and add more integrations. The iPaaS market is highly competitive, with big players like AWS and IBM aggressively developing their own products. However, Fraser claims that the key differentiator for DryMerge is its ease of use.

Currently, DryMerge has about 2,000 users, and the company plans to expand the team and enhance functionality with funding raised in their recent investment round.