Ultralight AI Startup Lovable is Blitzscaling from Stockholm

The high growth AI code tools market is attracting a slew of smaller players that are offering a range of easy-to-use coding products that are significantly improving productivity and accessibility, enabling both technical and non-technical users to create full-stack applications. One such player is Lovable.

Lovable’s Offerings

Stockholm-based Lovable AI was founded in 2023 by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin. Lovable evolved from an open-source project called GPT Engineer, which was designed to explore how AI could assist in software development. The project quickly gained traction, becoming one of GitHub’s fastest-growing repositories with over 50,000 stars. Recognizing the potential to democratize software creation, Osika and Hedin expanded their vision beyond the developer community to make application development accessible to anyone with an idea.

Lovable enables users to build and deploy full-stack web applications through natural language prompts, eliminating the need for coding expertise. Users can describe their app ideas in plain English, and Lovable translates these descriptions into functional applications. The platform handles everything from generating frontend and backend code to integrating databases and deploying to the cloud. Key features include an AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE), version control via GitHub synchronization, custom domain support, backend setup through services like Supabase, and built-in hosting. A distinguishing aspect of Lovable is that users retain full ownership of the code, which can be exported and customized as needed.

Lovable’s Financials

Lovable is currently privately held and does not disclose detailed financials. While it was originally based on an open-sourced GPT Engineer, Lovable operates on a for-profit model. Lovable offers a tiered pricing structure, starting at $20/month for hobbyists and scaling up to enterprise-level plans with dedicated support and custom integrations. It operates with a lean structure that has focused on building a strong early community around its vision of AI-augmented software development. Reports suggest that it has a total count of 11-50 employees. Last month, it reported $17 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with 30,000 paying customers creating 25,000 projects every day. The application has released over 1.2 million apps since inception.

The company is said to have received $17 million in funding so far. It recently announced a $15 million funding round to further develop its platform and expand its team. Its investors include Creandum, with backing from industry figures like Charlie Songhurst, Thomas Wolf, and several other tech CEOs. Valuation for the funding rounds was not disclosed. Lovable plans to use the funding to expand integration with third-party services, including Supabase for databases and GitHub for code storage.

The AI development tools market is highly competitive, featuring established players like GitHub Copilot and Replit, along with a growing number of new entrants. Lovable differentiates itself by targeting not just developers but anyone with an idea, using natural language as the primary interface for application creation. Its no-code/full-code hybrid approach positions it uniquely in this dynamic landscape.

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