Lovable valued at $6.6 billion in latest funding round as AI coding demand surges

Dec ‌18 (Reuters) - AI software development startup Lovable said on Thursday it ‍raised $330 million ‌in an early-stage funding round that values the Stockholm-based company at $6.6 ⁠billion.

Alphabet's CapitalG and Menlo ‌Ventures led the round, which nearly quadruples Lovable's valuation in less than six months.

The deal also drew investment from Nvidia's venture capital arm among others, ⁠underscoring investor demand for agentic AI tools that can handle complex software development ​work with minimal human input, as enterprises and ‌hobbyists increasingly adopt AI-assisted coding.

Lovable's ⁠sharp jump in value comes amid a boom in "vibe coding," in which users describe a project in plain language and expect ​AI to generate a full program.

Competitors including Replit, OpenAI, Google and Cursor offer similar products aimed at the growing market for agentic software development.

The company hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue in ​the ‍summer, about eight months ​after reaching its first $1 million, and now ranks among Europe's most valuable private technology firms. A funding round that closed in July valued it at $1.8 billion.

A roster of strategic backers also joined in the latest funding round, including the venture arms of Salesforce, Databricks, ⁠and Atlassian.

Lovable said it will use the new capital to expand enterprise features, strengthen collaboration tools ​and scale infrastructure as usage grows.

Founded in late 2023 by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin, Lovable quickly gained traction with users and venture capital alike by enabling non-technical founders ‌and teams to build and iterate on digital products without traditional coding expertise.

(Reporting by Arnav Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)