Accel, the storied venture firm that invested early in Facebook and Slack, is set to lead a new funding round in the Swedish "vibe coding" startup Lovable at a valuation of at least $1.5 billion, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.
Vibe coding, which allows novices with limited programming expertise to create code using AI, has been all the rage lately. Market leader Cursor's parent company, Anysphere, which is also backed by Accel, is reportedly in talks for a $9.9 billion valuation and now could be deployed internally by Amazon, Business Insider previously reported.
Other competitors include Cognition AI, Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, and Windsurf, which was recently acquired by OpenAI.
Lovable, founded by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin, aims to make coding even more user-friendly, enabling non-engineers to make software and applications.
It has the kind of hockey stick growth that enamors tech investors, going from zero to $17 million in annual recurring revenue in its first three months with 30,000 paying customers.
Lovable declined to comment on the funding round, which is still not finalized and could change. Bloomberg previously reported the valuation of the round.
Only a few months ago, Lovable raised $15 million in pre-series A funding led by Creandum, a European early-stage firm. Other investors included Charlie Songhurst, who sits on the Meta board, as well as Thomas Wolf, cofounder of Hugging Face.
The US has dominated funding for AI startups, something Lovable aims to change.
In a blog post, the company said it "may be Europe's fastest-growing AI startup" and that it was "proving that world-class AI companies can emerge from Europe—and win on the global stage."
