Lovable • Founded 2023 • Stockholm

Anton Osika: The Swedish Vegan Who Built the Fastest-Growing Software Company Ever

He coded on his bike, ate chia pudding for two years straight, and built Lovable— the vibe coding platform that went from $1M to $100M ARR faster than any software company in history.

Valuation: $1.8B

ARR: $100M+ (8 months)

Users: 2.3M+

The Key Lesson

"Open source is the ultimate distribution channel. A single tweet about GPT Engineer made Anton a celebrity overnight. Build something valuable, give it away, and the world will find you."

The Contrarian Who Coded on a Bike

Anton Osika started coding at age 12 in Stockholm. By the time he joined the Swedish AI community, he was already known for being deeply contrarian—and deeply weird.

"He used to code on his bike," recalls Joel Hellermark, founder of Sana Labs where Anton was the first employee. "And he ate the same thing for two years—chia pudding, I think it was."

But behind the eccentricities was a brilliant mind. Hellermark calls him "a brilliant thinker" who was "early onto AGI" before it was mainstream. Anton developed award-winning AI algorithms at Sana and later co-founded Depict.ai, a Y Combinator-backed startup that raised $20M.

"He was very contrarian. He used to code on his bike and ate the same thing for two years— chia pudding, I think it was."

— Joel Hellermark, Founder of Sana Labs

Three Weekends That Changed Everything

Back in Sweden, Anton had an idea. What if you could describe software in natural language and have AI build it for you? The concept wasn't new, but the execution could be.

He downed some coffee and got to work. Over the course of about three weekends, he created the first version of GPT Engineer—an open-source tool that let anyone generate code from natural language prompts.

Then he tweeted about it.

"After a single tweet, GPT Engineer became the most popular AI code generation GitHub project, almost overnight. And I became a celebrity—not just among engineers—but among all top global VCs and even the taxi drivers I met in San Francisco."

— Anton Osika

From Open Source to Lovable

The viral success of GPT Engineer proved the market existed. In 2023, Anton co-founded Lovable with Fabian Hedin to turn the concept into a commercial product. The name itself was a statement: they wanted to build software that people actually loved to use.

"Vibe coding" became their rallying cry—the idea that you could describe what you wanted in natural language and Lovable would build it for you. No coding required.

Launched Nov 2024

At Slush conference in Helsinki

$100M ARR

In just 8 months

Fastest Ever

$1M to $100M ARR record

The Fastest-Growing Software Company in History

Since launching at Slush in November 2024, Lovable has become a phenomenon. The numbers are staggering:

Over 10 million projects created on Lovable
More than 100,000 new projects each day
2.3+ million active users
$100M ARR in just 8 months

That last number is historic. Lovable grew from $1M to $100M ARR faster than OpenAI, faster than Cursor, faster than Wiz. It is, officially, the fastest software company to reach that milestone ever.

Sweden's Largest Series A Ever

In 2025, Lovable raised $200 million at a $1.8 billion valuation—the largest Series A in Swedish history. The company had raised approximately $224 million in total.

For a two-year-old startup from Stockholm, it was validation of a thesis that seemed crazy just years ago: the future of software development is describing what you want, not writing code.

Europe's First Trillion-Dollar Company?

Anton isn't thinking small. His vision for Lovable? To become Europe's first trillion-dollar company.

"The vision we have for Lovable is to be the last piece of software, which means that once Lovable is fully built out, humans don't have to write software code anymore."

— Anton Osika

It's an audacious goal. But then again, three weekends of coding in Sweden led to the fastest-growing software company in history. Anton has earned the right to dream big.

What Founders Can Learn

1

Open source is distribution

GPT Engineer going viral on GitHub did more for Lovable's brand than any marketing budget could. Build something valuable, give it away, and you'll find your customers.

2

Embrace your weirdness

Anton coded on a bike and ate chia pudding for two years. His contrarian nature wasn't a bug—it was a feature. The same thinking that made him "weird" made him see opportunities others missed.

3

Speed beats perfection

Three weekends. That's all it took to build the prototype that proved the market. Anton didn't wait for perfect—he shipped and iterated.

4

Build on your experience

First employee at Sana, co-founder of Depict.ai, then Lovable. Each step built skills and credibility for the next. Your previous work is your foundation.

5

Name things with intention

"Lovable" isn't just a name—it's a promise. They're building software people love to use. The name sets the standard for everything they build.

The Last Piece of Software

Anton Osika set out to build the last piece of software—a tool so powerful that humans wouldn't need to write code anymore. Whether he achieves that vision remains to be seen.

But with 2.3 million users, $100M+ ARR, and the fastest growth in software history, he's off to a pretty good start.

The contrarian from Stockholm who coded on his bike is building the future of software. And he's doing it from Europe.

Sources & Further Reading

Sifted - Lunch with Lovable's Anton Osika Inc. - 5 Things to Know About Anton Osika Silicon Canals - Fastest-Growing Software Company Euronews - Europe's First Trillion-Dollar Company?