AI startup Lovable’s rapid rise turns its founders into billionaires, with one among Europe’s youngest self-made billionaires

Stockholm-based Lovable, known for its "vibe coding" platform, has seen its valuation soar to $6.6 billion after a new funding round, nearly tripling its worth in under six months. The company raised $330 million in the latest round. Earlier this year, Lovable was named the fastest-growing software startup in history.

According to Forbes, cofounders Anton Osika, 35, and Fabian Hedin, 26, each hold about 24% of the company, giving them individual net worths of roughly $1.6 billion. At 26, Hedin becomes one of Europe’s youngest self-made billionaires, and is one of only 12 such billionaires worldwide under the age of 30.

Lovable's founders Anton Osika (R) and Fabian Hedin. Photo from Instagram

Both founders have pledged to donate 50% of their earnings from any future exit to charity. "Me and Fabian have pledged a very large part of the value that we build up from Lovable will go to ensuring that humanity's transition to super intelligent AI goes well, and it is good for the humans that live through it," Osika told Forbes in July.

Founded in 2023, Lovable develops an AI-powered coding tool that allows users to build websites and applications using written prompts. Osika started the company after an AI coding tool he built in his spare time gained rapid attention.

He later recruited Hedin, a former colleague, as cofounder and CTO, and secured $8 million in seed funding from venture fund Hummingbird in October 2023. The pair launched Lovable’s ‘vibe coding’ product in November 2024.

Osika told U.K. newspaper The Times in April that Lovable builds on large language models from OpenAI and Anthropic, adding proprietary features to improve reliability and ease of use.

He said the platform provides a blank canvas where users can create products that "previously required entire teams, back-end engineers, front-end engineers."

Lovable generates code through natural language prompts, with Osika saying the system is dependable in most cases. "If you are doing something that is life and death I would get a human software engineer to review the security aspect of it. But if it is not life and death, you are taking similar risks to hiring a human software engineer," he said.

In July, Lovable became the fastest-growing software startup in history, reaching $100 million in subscription revenue. By November, it reported eight million active users, more than triple its 2.3 million users in July.

The company’s rise reflects a broader shift toward AI-driven software development that is reducing labor costs for startups. Garry Tan, chief executive of startup accelerator Y Combinator, told CNBC in March that about a quarter of Y Combinator-backed startups now generate 95% of their code using AI.

"It sounds a little scary, but what it means for founders is that they no longer need a team of 50 or 100 engineers," Tan said, adding that some startups are now reaching $10 million in revenue with teams of fewer than 10 people.