Most devs don't pay for their tools. Because they are employees and they need their bosses to sign off on expenses. I know some free lancers that pay for some tools but way more that don't. So, it's a small market that sustains a handful of really nice tools. Jetbrains is one of the more successful tool vendors in this space. But their tools are really essential to many developers.
As a CTO, most of my budget goes to paid services that add clear value with a clear value proposition. The value proposition with developer tools is usually quite murky. It's all very subjective and preference based. So, something like kite is a hard sell.
It's remarkable that they attracted so much investment. But of course that put them under enormous pressure to meet what were probably highly unrealistic revenue goals as well. That team might have made them a nice acquihire target at best.
As a CTO, most of my budget goes to paid services that add clear value with a clear value proposition. The value proposition with developer tools is usually quite murky. It's all very subjective and preference based. So, something like kite is a hard sell.
It's remarkable that they attracted so much investment. But of course that put them under enormous pressure to meet what were probably highly unrealistic revenue goals as well. That team might have made them a nice acquihire target at best.