Hello! Quick note: There will be no newsletter tomorrow. It's Veteran's Day, and Alex and I are taking a beat to mark it properly. To those who served: we deeply thank you.

TechCrunch, however, keeps its engines running, so you'll find us there if you need us. Speaking of which, I’m writing this from Lisbon, where Web Summit has taken over the city in that chaotic way tech conferences do — lots of interesting people, lots of interesting conversations. Earlier today I sat down with Anton Osika of Lovable (story below). Tomorrow I'm talking with Laurent Mekies, who now runs Oracle Red Bull Racing's Formula 1 operation, which should be interesting given the, shall we say, dynamic nature of that team's recent history. I also spent time with Nigel Morris, who co-founded Capital One back when most of us were still figuring out how credit cards worked. Good conversation. More on that soon. See you Wednesday. 🇺🇸 — CL

Coinbase is launching a new token-sales platform that lets individual investors buy digital coins before they’re listed, marking the first regulated return of ICO-style offerings in the U.S. since 2018. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Affinity's Tech Stack Spotlight reveals how Picus Capital eliminated manual work and accelerated deal velocity with AI-powered workflows. Join us November 20 (10 AM PT / 1 PM ET)as Abhijay Thacker shares real automation strategies, firm-wide adoption tactics, and integration approaches with Affinity as the foundation. See exactly how a leading European early-stage fund built a system that drives competitive advantage. This quarterly series goes behind the scenes with firms winning through technology.

By Connie Loizos

Lovable, the Stockholm-based AI coding platform, is closing in on 8 million users, CEO Anton Osika told this editor during a sit-down on Monday, a major jump from the 2.3 million active users number the company shared in July. Osika said the company — which was founded almost exactly one year ago — is also seeing “100,000 new products built on Lovable every single day.”

The metrics suggest rapid growth of the startup, which has raised $228 million in total funding to date, including a $200 million round this summer that valued the company at $1.8 billion. Rumors have swirled in recent weeks — potentially sparked by its own investors — that new backers want to invest at a $5 billion valuation, though Osika said the company isn’t capital constrained and declined to discuss fundraising plans.

Speaking to me on stage at the Web Summit event in Lisbon, Osika notably didn’t share another number: Lovable’s current annual recurring revenue. The company, which uses a mix of free and paid tiers, hit $100 million in ARR this June, a milestone it trumpeted publicly. But questions have emerged since about whether the vibe coding boom is sustainable.

Research from Barclays this summer, along with Google Trends data, showed that traffic to some of the buzziest services, including Lovable and Vercel’s v0, had declined after peaking earlier this year. (Traffic to Lovable was down 40% as of September, according to the Barclays analysts.) “This waning traffic begs the question on whether app/site vibecoding has peaked out already or has just had a bit of a lull before interest ramps up,” they reportedly wrote in a note to investors.

Still, Osika insisted retention remains strong, citing more than 100% net dollar retention — meaning users’ spend more over time. He also said the company has “just passed” the 100-employee mark and is now importing leadership talent from San Francisco to bolster its Stockholm headquarters.

Lovable emerged from GPT Engineer, an open-source tool Osika built that went viral among developers. But he says he quickly realized the bigger opportunity lay with the 99% of people who don’t know how to code. “I woke up a few days after building GPT Engineer and I realized, look, we’re going to reimagine how you build software,” Osika said. “I biked to my co-founder’s place, and I said, I have this great idea. I woke him up.”

The platform has attracted an eclectic user base. More than half of Fortune 500 companies are using Lovable to “supercharge creativity,” according to Osika. At the same time, he said, an 11-year-old in Lisbon built a Facebook clone for his school, while a Swedish duo is making $700,000 annually from a startup they launched seven months ago on the platform.

Clio, a 17-year-old Vancouver company that develops legal software for law firms, raised a $500 million Series G round at a $5 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with TCV, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Sixth Street Growth, and JMI Equity also investing. The company also announced its acquisition of vLex for $1 billion. GeekWire has more here.

CoLab, an eight-year-old Canadian startup that builds AI-powered software for mechanical engineering and hardware development teams to speed up design reviews and product decisions, raised a $72 million Series C round led by Intrepid Growth Partners, with Insight Partners, Y Combinator, Pelorus VC, Killick Capital, and Spider Capital also participating. The Globe and Mail has more here.

Gamma, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that creates AI-generated presentations, websites, and social media content, raised a $68 million Series B round at a $2.1+ billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz was the deal lead, with Accel and Uncork Capital also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Majestic Labs, a two-year-old Los Altos and Tel Aviv startup that develops high-capacity AI servers to help cloud companies cut data center costs, announced that it raised a $71 million Series A round in September led by Bow Wave Capital, with Lux Capital also joining in. CNBC has more here.

Neros, a two-year-old El Segundo, CA startup that develops low-cost military drones for the U.S. and allied forces, raised a $75 million round led by Sequoia Capital. The company has raised a total of $121 million. The New York Times has more here.

Scribe, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that helps enterprises capture and analyze workflows to identify where automation and AI can drive returns, raised a $75 million Series C round at a $1.3 billion post-money valuation. StepStone was the deal lead, with Amplify Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Tiger Global, Morado Ventures, and New York Life Ventures also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

1mind, a startup that builds AI sales agents to handle inbound demand and close deals, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Battery Ventures, with Primary Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, Operator Collective, Harmonic Growth Partners, and Success Venture Partners also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $40 million. TechCrunch has more here.

AirOps, a five-year-old New York and San Francisco startup that helps marketing teams optimize and publish content for AI search, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Greylock, with Unusual Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, XFund, Village Global VC, and Frontline VC also taking part. The company has raised a total of $60 million. CityBiz has more here.

DealMaker, an eight-year-old New York startup that provides a retail capital-raising platform, raised a $20 million equity and debt round co-led by Information Venture Partners and CIBC Innovation Banking. CityBiz has more here.

Onchilles Pharma, a nine-year-old San Diego startup that develops cytotoxic cancer therapies, raised a $25 million Series A1 round. Investors included Invivium Capital, Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, and UCM Ventures as well as previous investors LYZZ Capital Advisors and Lincoln Park Capital Fund. The company has raised a total of $40 million. More here.

Dotega, a one-year-old Stuttgart startup that provides web-based software for small homeowners’ associations to self-manage their properties, raised a $1.5 million pre-seed round. High-Tech Gründerfonds was the deal lead. Tech Funding News has more here.

Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem ranked among the top 10 in EMEA. TÜSİAD’s report highlights the ecosystem’s growth in recent years and its potential as a regional entrepreneurship hub for tech companies. Türkiye ranks in the top 10 in the EMEA across several verticals: gaming, fintech and defense. With 3,000+ startups, unicorns, tax advantages, young and digital friendly population, the ecosystem opens its doors to global entrepreneurs and investors who embody the spirit of entrepreneurship. Learn more about the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem. 

Sapphire Sport, a seven-year-old New York venture firm that backs sports, media, and entertainment startups including Beehiiv, Tonal, and Perplexity, has spun out of Sapphire Ventures and rebranded as 359 Capital with $300 million under management. TechCrunch has more here.

Robinhood plans to let retail investors buy into private AI companies through a new fund managed by its ventures arm. PYMNTS has more here.

Rumble, a U.S. video-sharing and cloud-services company, agreed to acquire German AI infrastructure firm Northern Data for up to $970 million, a tie-up that deepens both companies’ ties to Tether and gives Rumble control of Northern Data’s 40,000-GPU network. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Kaltura, a New York video software company that provides cloud tools for webinars, streaming, and learning management, agreed to acquire Israel-based eSelf, a two-year-old startup that builds conversational AI avatars, for about $27 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Klook, an 11-year-old Hong Kong company backed by SoftBank that lets travelers book tours, attractions, and transport, filed for a U.S. IPO after reporting 24% revenue growth in 2024. Reuters has more here.

After winning shareholder approval for a $1 trillion pay package, Elon Musk used xAI’s new Grok Imagine tool to post AI-generated romantic videos on X, sparking widespread mockery and a sharp rebuke from author Joyce Carol Oates. TechCrunch has more here.

Intel’s chief technology and AI officer Sachin Katti is leaving the chipmaker to lead OpenAI’s efforts to build compute infrastructure for artificial general intelligence, underscoring the growing competition for top AI talent. CRN has more here.

Anthropic expects to break even by 2028 while OpenAI projects $74 billion in losses that year, highlighting their divergent strategies as Anthropic focuses on efficient enterprise AI growth and OpenAI doubles down on massive infrastructure bets. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

The European Commission plans to weaken parts of the GDPR to spur AI development, proposing exceptions that let companies process sensitive data and ease cookie consent rules, a move expected to ignite major political backlash in Brussels. POLITICO has more here.

A new wave of Gen Z shoppers is driving demand for “vintage Lululemon” and other secondhand activewear, favoring retro Nike and Adidas pieces over uniform athleisure sets as resale apps and brands embrace nostalgic fitness fashion.

A nearly completed 30,000-square-foot mansion on Miami's Indian Creek with nine bedrooms, a spa, hair salon, library with secret passage, 1,500 gallon aquarium, and a private dock is asking $200 million, $80 million more than the current record holder.

The Waldorf Astoria New York’s 4,500-square-foot penthouse suite features Louis XVI moldings, a marble fireplace, a Cole Porter Steinway piano, a dining room with a full kitchen, and views of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, all starting at $50,000 a night.

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