Browserbase Inc., a startup focused on automating tasks that involve interacting with webpages, has closed a $40 million funding round. Browserbase provides a so-called headless browser specifically designed to automate webpage interactions. According to the company, it’s optimized for use by scripts and artificial intelligence agents. The browser is available through a serverless platform that removes the need for customers to manage the underlying infrastructure. According to Browserbase, its platform can spin up thousands of browsers in a fraction of a second. Each instance is assigned four virtual central processing units to ensure that web page interactions are completed quickly. To further boost performance, the platform hosts browsers in data centers around the world. Developers can send requests to a web server from the nearest data center to reduce latency. The platform is compatible with Puppeteer and Selenium, two popular open-source tools for creating browser automation scripts. As a result, developers don’t have to change their existing scripts to use the software. There’s also support for Browserbase’s own Stagehand automation tool, which it touts as a more capable alternative to Puppeteer and Selenium. It allows developers to combine traditional scripts with AI agents in the same workflow. Agents are used when adaptability is needed while scripts automate tasks that require a high degree of reliability.