Backed By $9M: Expensya Founders Launch Thunder Code to Automate Software Testing Using AI Agents

PARIS, June 4, 2025 — After vowing never to return to entrepreneurship, Expensya co-founders Karim Jouini and Jihed Othmani are back with a new startup aimed at overhauling software testing using generative AI.

The duo, who sold their Tunis-born expense management company to Swedish procurement firm Medius in 2023 in what is considered one of Africa’s largest tech acquisitions, have launched Thunder Code. The Paris-based company, with a secondary office in Tunis, has raised $9 million in seed funding. Deal terms for Expensya were never disclosed, though sources estimate the sale exceeded $120 million.

“It’s pretty crazy because we promised not to do another company because Expensya was too hard,” said Jouini. “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.”

Following the acquisition, Jouini became Medius’ chief technology officer, where he oversaw the integration of six companies across three continents. The experience reignited his interest in building. As he explored how generative AI could improve software development, he identified testing as a bottleneck across products and teams. That realization became the foundation for Thunder Code.

The company’s core product replaces manual testing with AI-powered agents that simulate human QA workflows. These agents identify interface and user experience issues while learning from iterative feedback.

Determined to avoid early mistakes made during Expensya’s growth, Jouini focused on speed and practicality. “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.

Thunder Code already has paying customers and pilot programs in the United States, Canada, France and Tunisia. The product currently targets web application testing, with expansion plans into mobile, desktop and API testing expected by the end of 2025.

Beyond technical improvements, Jouini is applying hard-earned lessons from his previous company. These include investing early in top talent and prioritizing essential features. He is clear-eyed about equity dilution. “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 said.

He also sees a broader shift. Jouini believes AI will enable Thunder Code to deliver ten times the value with a smaller team. Despite the leap from expense management to developer tools, he said testing is a larger, more complex market—one projected to surpass $100 billion by 2027.

That market remains dominated by legacy platforms like Tricentis and BrowserStack, which Jouini believes are slow to evolve. He sees Thunder Code’s AI-first approach as an opportunity to gain ground on slower incumbents and newer agentic products alike.

Co-founder Othmani, who previously built internal AI tools at Expensya, brings deep technical expertise in generative AI. Their complementary skill sets—along with six-month fundraising success—position the team to scale quickly.

Investors include repeat backers from Expensya’s cap table such as Silicon Badia and Janngo Capital, along with Titan Seed Fund and strategic angels like Roxanne Varza, director of Station F, and Karim Beguir, CEO of InstaDeep. Several former and current Expensya employees have also invested.

“Some of our investors are actually Expensya employees and I’m glad it worked out that way,” said Jouini.