Since its emergence a couple of years ago, utilizing generative AI for software development has been one of its most significant applications. However, platforms such as Cursor and Copilot have mostly catered to a niche audience of trained engineers, limiting their reach.

A Swedish AI startup, Lovable, gained widespread recognition on Product Hunt and Hacker News last year by enabling users to create apps with ease, simply through prompting. The company has now secured $16 million in a pre-Series A funding round, led by Creandum, and has announced impressive growth metrics.

Lovable’s platform empowers users to develop production-ready software without requiring coding expertise. In addition to building prototypes and websites, its GPT Engineer can deploy fully functional web applications.

The company currently boasts 500,000 users who are creating over 25,000 new products daily, demonstrating its rapid adoption and popularity.

As a European alternative to US-based AI coding tools, Lovable has achieved $17 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), with 30,000 paying customers, making it one of the fastest-growing startups in Europe. Notably, this milestone was reached with a relatively modest capital expenditure of $2 million.

Following a €6.8 million pre-seed funding round led by Hummingbird Ventures and byFounders in October, Lovable’s founder, Anton Osika, shared with TechCrunch that the platform’s unique value proposition lies in its ability to deliver functional software, setting it apart from competing AI-driven code-building platforms.

Osika explained that Lovable’s platform leverages a combination of OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic to generate software, providing users with a seamless experience.

He noted that the platform has facilitated the development of hundreds of commercial apps, with at least 25,000 currently being built, demonstrating its potential and versatility.

Osika, who co-founded Lovable with Fabian Hedin, conceived the idea for the company while working on Depict.ai in 2023. Depict, a YC-backed company, has raised $20 million in investment from prominent investors, including Garry Tan’s Initialized Capital, EQT Ventures, and Northzone, and applies machine learning in the e-commerce sector.

Osika’s diverse experience includes developing the interface for Stephen Hawking’s computer and collaborating with former SpaceX engineers on wheelchair technology, showcasing his innovative approach to problem-solving.

Osika shared with TechCrunch that his vision for Lovable is to provide the 99% of the population without coding knowledge with access to software development capabilities through AI, thereby democratizing the field.

Lovable plans to expand its integration with third-party services, including Supabase for databases and GitHub for code storage, further enhancing its capabilities and user experience.

Fredrik Cassel, general partner at Creandum, stated, “I haven’t seen this level of user enthusiasm for a product since our investment in Spotify. It’s truly remarkable. Lovable has the potential to become one of Europe’s next generational companies in the AI era.”

The funding round also included investments from notable angel investors, such as Charlie Songhurst (Meta board), Adam D’Angelo and Thomas Wolf (Hugging Face), and Eric Bernhardsson (Modal), demonstrating the confidence of industry experts in Lovable’s vision and potential.