Sweden's AI App Builder Lovable Raises $15M in Funding

AI-Powered Software Creation Gains Traction

The application of generative AI in software development represents a significant advancement since its emergence a few years ago. However, platforms such as Cursor and Copilot primarily cater to individuals with established engineering expertise.

Lovable: Democratizing App Development

Lovable, a Swedish AI startup, garnered considerable attention last year, achieving prominence on both Product Hunt and Hacker News by enabling users to create applications with remarkable ease, solely through prompting. The company has now secured $15 million in a pre-Series A funding round, spearheaded by Creandum.

Building Production-Ready Software Without Code

Lovable empowers individuals to construct what it terms production-ready software, eliminating the necessity for traditional coding skills. Beyond prototype creation and website building, its GPT Engineer capability facilitates the deployment of fully functional web applications.

Rapid Growth and Financial Performance

The platform currently boasts 500,000 users who are collectively developing over 25,000 new products on a daily basis. Lovable reports substantial financial growth, having reached $17 million in annual recurring revenue with a customer base of 30,000 paying subscribers.

Impressive Growth with Limited Funding

These figures position Lovable as one of the fastest-growing startups in Europe. Notably, this achievement was attained with only $2 million in capital, originating from a €6.8 million pre-seed funding round finalized last October, led by Hummingbird Ventures and byFounders.

Differentiating Factors

According to Founder Anton Osika, Lovable distinguishes itself from competing AI-driven code-building platforms by offering “the most effective method for achieving a functional outcome.”

Leveraging Multiple AI Models

The platform utilizes a combination of OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic technologies, integrated into a system capable of generating software solutions.

Significant Application Volume

“We are witnessing the creation of hundreds of commercial applications on the platform, with at least 25,000 apps being developed each day,” Osika stated.

Origins and Founding Team

Osika, who co-founded Lovable alongside engineer Fabian Hedin, conceived the idea while working on Depict.ai in 2023. Depict.ai, a YC-backed company, subsequently raised $20 million in investment from Initialized Capital, EQT Ventures, Northzone, and others, applying machine learning within the e-commerce sector.

Founders' Backgrounds

Prior to Lovable, Osika held a position at CERN and Sana Labs. Hedin’s experience includes developing the interface for the computer utilized by the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, as well as collaborating with former SpaceX engineers on wheelchair technology.

Vision for Accessibility

“My aim is to extend the capabilities of a software engineer to the 99% of the population lacking coding expertise through the power of AI,” Osika explained to TechCrunch.

Future Expansion Plans

Lovable intends to broaden its integration with third-party services, including Supabase for database management and GitHub for code repository functions.

Investor Confidence

Fredrik Cassel, general partner at Creandum, remarked in a statement: “Since our investment in Spotify, I haven’t encountered such a strong level of user enthusiasm for a product.”

Funding Round Participants

The funding round also included participation from Visionaries Club, alongside angel investors such as Charlie Songhurst (Meta board), Adam D’Angelo and Thomas Wolf (Hugging Face), and Eric Bernhardsson (Modal).