Podcast Summary: The Last Invention is AI

Episode: Blazing Lovable Raise: $6.6B $330M
Release Date: December 24, 2025
Host: The Last Invention is AI

Episode Overview

This episode dives into Lovable, a Swedish “vibe coding” AI-powered startup, and examines the company’s explosive growth, recent fundraising round, and impact on the tech landscape. The host shares a user’s perspective, offers insights into Lovable’s product evolution, unpacks fundraising dynamics, addresses challenges (including regulatory bumps), and discusses what this means for the broader AI and coding tool sector.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Lovable’s $330M Raise at a $6.6B Valuation

• Rapid Growth: Lovable completed a $330 million Series B led by Capital G and Menlo Low Ventures, bumping its valuation from $1.8B in July 2025 (following a $200M Series A) to $6.6B—a nearly 4x jump in five months.
  • "They have more than tripled their valuation in just five months, which I think really shows how much their investors are excited for this company." (02:14)
• Top-Tier Investors: Participation from Khosla Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Databricks Ventures signals strong institutional confidence.

2. The Lovable Product: From Front-End Magic to Full Apps

• Early Days: Initially, Lovable quickly generated UI designs from simple text prompts—great for prototyping but limited for building complete applications.
• User Experience:
  • The host shares personal stories about using Lovable for projects, describing a transition from relying on designers to managing everything through AI:
    • "I'm not a developer and instead of using a designer, I'm able to get basically chat with Lovable and have it create a design that I love that looks exactly like what I want it to do." (03:20)
  • Working with developers became easier once restrictions (e.g., approved libraries only) were set for code generation.
  • Early issues included Lovable adding unneeded code packages, but customized prompts resolved most workflow pain points.
    • "My development team will give me like the libraries that we use... I will just tell Lovable, like only use these packages, don't add any new packages, only use these libraries. And it will do the whole thing with the limitations you give it." (06:02)
• Enterprise and Integrations:
  • Lovable evolved to handle not just design but also complex product functionality via deep integrations.
    • Over 100,000 new projects created daily, 25 million in the first year.
    • Major clients: Klarna, Zendesk, Uber.
    • Integrations: Supabase for databases, OpenAI for AI-driven features, and ongoing expansion with payment and hosting solutions.
    • "They're going to expand their enterprise focused features, which I think is a great play. They're going to add some core infrastructure like databases, payments and hosting to support full scale application development." (09:35)

3. CEO Anton’s Strategy: Staying in Sweden

• Global Ambitions from Stockholm:
  • Despite pressure, CEO Anton kept Lovable headquartered in Sweden rather than relocating to Silicon Valley, arguing it gives access to mission-driven talent and proves global AI firms don’t need to be Valley-based.
    • Quote: "I really resisted that. I can sit here now and say, look, you can build a global AI company from this country and there's more available talent if you have a strong mission and a lot of urgency working together." (11:17)
• Host’s Take: The host acknowledges that success could have happened in the U.S., but praises Lovable for being a high-growth outlier outside the typical tech epicenters.

4. Regulatory Hurdles: VAT Controversy

• Public Criticism:
  • In November, Lovable faced allegations of unpaid EU value added tax (VAT).
  • CEO Anton addressed this openly on LinkedIn, promising to resolve and criticizing EU tax policy as challenging for scaleups.
    • "Their CEO confirmed the issue on LinkedIn... and pushed back against the claims that the EU tax policy makes their region really inhospitable for high growth startups." (12:45)
• Host Perspective: Even as a standout, Lovable must navigate unique European regulatory challenges.

5. The Vibe Coding Boom and Competitive Landscape

• Growing Sector:
  • "Vibe coding" (AI-powered low-code/no-code) is a surging industry; VCs are pouring funds into platforms democratizing app creation.
  • Lovable’s closest competitor, Cursor, recently raised $3.2B at $29B, doubling its valuation in a few months (more focused on developers).
    • "Cursor is another really high profile company which is sort of in the space, but it's more for developers. They raised $3.2 billion... valuation doubled between June and November." (13:40)
• Host’s Analysis:
  • The primary value unlock is empowering users to build moneymaking apps without deep technical skill, which justifies massive investor interest.
    • "Anytime you let people build tools that can let them generate money, they'll spend a ton of money on it... this is kind of the unlock that both Cursor and Lovable have discovered." (14:20)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Lovable’s Product Evolution:
  • "When I first started using Lovable, it wasn’t very good at building actual tools that could complete tasks. And they have come a long way." (03:00)
• On the Future:
  • "They're planning to use this new capital... to essentially deepen integrations with third party tools. And I think this is absolutely the right approach." (08:44)
• Startup Ambitions from Sweden:
  • CEO Anton: "You can build a global AI company from this country and there's more available talent if you have a strong mission and a lot of urgency working together." (11:17)
• On Growth Mindset:
  • "This sector, this space for Vibe coding, whether it's no code for non-coders or for developers, is growing incredibly fast and is, you know, printing a ton of money." (14:10)

Key Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction and Lovable’s massive raise: $330M at $6.6B
• 02:14 Lovable’s valuation jump, top-tier investor roster
• 03:00-07:00 Personal user experience with Lovable, workflow changes, product evolution
• 08:44 Expanded features: integrations, payments, full-stack functionality
• 11:17 CEO’s philosophy and decision to stay headquartered in Sweden
• 12:45 Regulatory/Tax hurdles in the EU and CEO response
• 13:40 Vibe coding industry landscape, Cursor’s parallel growth
• 14:10-14:53 Host’s concluding thoughts on the sector’s rapid expansion and investor optimism

Conclusion

The episode paints Lovable as one of the fastest-growing and most innovative AI startups, transforming how both individuals and enterprises build software. Their meteoric fundraising, product evolution, and commitment to building in Sweden set them apart, while their journey illustrates broader themes in the global AI and coding tool revolution.