VCs have Lovable fever. The Swedish startup, which has developed an AI tool that lets people without coding skills create apps and websites in minutes, is one of the fastest-growing companies ever in Europe, had the mettle to turn down famed US accelerator Y Combinator and had investors such as Creandum coughing up $15m for a pre-Series A round a couple of weeks ago.
Why the hype? In the last three months, Lovable reached $17m in annual recurring revenue (ARR), 30k paying customers and 25k apps being built on the platform daily.
But Lovable isn’t the only AI agent startup seeing great growth by creating website applications for coders and non-coders alike, according to Jon Kåre Stene, partner at Skyfall ventures and an investor in Norwegian AI agent-maker Databutton.
“Cursor, Bolt, Lovable, Databutton and companies like them are experiencing massive growth now. It’s like they’re dwarfing a lot of things that we know of the normal growth of software startups,” Stene tells Sifted.
So far in 2025, VCs have pumped more than €600m into the AI agent sector, according to Sifted data. That’s more than a third of the €1.7bn raised across the whole of 2024.
The AI agent sector is also one that Europe can compete with the US on, says Northzone principal Maxine Rior.
“I would say that specifically Lovable is remarkable as a showcase that Europe is not behind the US,” Rior says. Rival US app builders include Dora, Superblock, Xano and Appsmith.
The sector is still in quite an early stage, she says, which means that most startups in app development haven’t yet focused on one target group. “Right now, it’s a bit of a ‘one size fits no one’ situation,” she says.
“It will become more interesting when they start to differentiate themselves by deciding on which tool to focus on,” Rior says. “Then I think we will see a clearer segmentation and which startups have it.”
In a hot field, Sifted has listed seven startups building AI tools for non-coders to build apps to keep an eye on for VCs with Lovable FOMO.
Databutton, Oslo
The app builder, which raised a €4.8m seed round in 2023, is developing AI agents with ‘reasoning’ abilities. Databutton’s pricing starts off at $20 per month — the same amount Lovable charges to start using its platform. However, Databutton’s top tier subscription, which gives customers access to a human and AI advisor, is $4,000 per month (Lovable’s website doesn’t give prices for company subscriptions).
Builder.ai, London
App building that’s as easy as “ordering pizza”, according to the company’s website. Builder has raised around $450m, most recently a $250m Series D in 2023. The first point of contact with the company is via an “always on” AI companion called Natasha, which informs customers about pricing plans and build schedules. Customers can choose modular features off-the-shelf and then human designers apply the finishing touches.
Bloomy AI, London
Founded in 2023, the startup promises to make app ideas “ready to launch in 10 minutes”. Founder and CEO Aleksandr Litovchenko is a former Google and Bumble engineer.
Softr, Berlin
The four-year-old business, which raised a $13.5m Series A in 2022, lets customers build apps on top of data from business workspaces such as Airtable, HubSpot and Notion. Cofounder and CEO Mariam Hakobyan recently said that more than 700k customers have used its tools to create custom portals, internal tools, CRMs, dashboards and more.
Framer, Amsterdam
Another DIY app builder, this one raised a $27m Series C round in 2023. The startup, which has a more specialist bent than rivals, offers no-code tools for designers. It was founded by serial entrepreneurs Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk, whose previous software and design company, Sofa, was acquired by Facebook.
Hostinger, Vilnius
The company recently upped its AI game with a new tool that (like Lovable’s) promises new apps in minutes. This follows from an effort by the company last year to spruce up and rebrand its AI assistant feature. According to Hostinger’s latest financial information, the company increased revenue by 57% to €110.2m in 2023.
Natively, Kyiv
Founded in 2022, this startup turns websites or web apps into mobile apps. Cofounder, CEO (and CTO) Roman Furman lives in Berlin; the fledgling company recently received a Google for Startups grant.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/lovable-fomo-has-vcs-hunting-for-the-next-super-fast-app-builder/
