The vibe coding movement, as Paul Copplestone figures it, started last December—and we’re already a few eras in.
“So, wave one of vibe coding was like, ‘You’ll never need more software,’” said Copplestone, CEO and cofounder of Supabase, an open source application development platform. “Wave two is, ‘Oh, you’ll never need to write code again.’… And then wave three, which we’re in now, is where these ideas converge—there’s a nice happy path for anyone who’s on their mobile, looking to build an app. They start on mobile, kick it across to their laptop, and then it scales out.”
Copplestone is in a unique position to monitor the vibe coding movement. His company, which provides backend infrastructure for AI and no-code platforms like Bolt and Lovable, grew its user base from one million to north of four million developers over the last year. “AI builders,” as Copplestone terms them, tend to represent about 30% of their signups. Supabase is built on Postgres, the popular developer database system that competes with Google’s Firebase and is a bet on an open-source future.
In April, Term Sheet broke the news that Supabase had raised $200 million in an Accel-led Series D, valuing the company at $2 billion. Now, about five months later, Supabase has raised a $100 million Series E at a $5 billion valuation. Accel and Peak XV led the round, with Figma Ventures joining the round along with other existing investors. (Supabase declined to disclose current revenue figures.) Supabase—which has now raised $500 million since its 2020 founding—also included an opportunity for the startup’s developer community to co-invest in the round as part of a “build-together, owned-together mentality,” Copplestone said.
There’s only one new institutional investor in this round—Figma. Copplestone’s an admirer of Figma CEO Dylan Field and the company’s rollicking, very online user community (and Supabase helps underpin AI design tool Figma Make). Otherwise, Supabase restricted the company’s Series E to insiders, despite interest from outside investors.
“The future of Supabase, I hope, is the $50 billion, $100 billion outcome,” Copplestone told Fortune. “Is that extra investor going to get you there when you wouldn’t have otherwise? Are they going to add $5 billion to the top? The math isn’t quite certain, especially when we’ve already got investors that I feel will be able to get us there, at least for now.”
Copplestone’s an optimist about one of the most existential questions around vibe coding: As it gets easier for anyone to code, what will happen to coding and developer jobs?
“Developers today are coding a lot, and I think they’ll probably code a lot less in the future,” said Copplestone, who believes we’re still very far off from a day when no one will need to code at all. “But people will still be interested in code, and there will be no shortage of people who want to build things. As things get easier, more people will actually want to build things. So, for us, it’s a great tailwind.”
ICYMI… Paul was on the Term Sheet Podcast last week, talking about how he builds culture in a global, remote startup. We also talk about New Zealand, why he hires other founders, and more about the vibe coding labor shift. Listen and watch here.
See you Monday,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Venture Deals
- DualEntry, a New York City-based AI-native ERP, raised $90 million in Series A funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures led the round and were joined by GV, Contrary, and Vesey Ventures.
- Ansa Biotechnologies, an Emeryville, Calif.-based DNA synthesis company, raised $54.4 million in Series B funding. Cerberus Ventures led the round and was joined by Blue Water Life Science Advisors, Altitude Life Science Ventures, and others.
- Dash0, a New York City-based AI-powered observability platform, raised $35 million in Series A funding. Accel and Cherry Ventures led the round and were joined by existing investor DIG Ventures.
- Oneleet, a Wilmington, Del.-based cybersecurity and compliance platform, raised $33 million in Series A funding. Dawn Capital led the round and was joined by Y-Combinator and others.
- Cypher Games, an Istanbul, Turkey-based mobile games company, raised $30 million in funding. The Raine Group and Play Ventures led the round and were joined by others.
- Folia Health, a Boston, Mass.-based chronic disease tracking company, raised $10.5 million in Series A funding. S3 Ventures led the round and was joined by Crosslink Capital and Create Health Ventures.
- Aventra, a Herndon, VA, based developer of low-cost glide and guidance systems for ultra long-range precision strikes, raised $3 million in seed funding. Lavrock Ventures led the round.
- Podonos, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based builder of automated services to improve voice AI model performance, raised $2.4 million in pre-seed funding. Serac Ventures led the round and was joined by NAVER D2SF and Kaist Venture Investment.
- Argu.ai, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI-powered surveillance platform, raised $2 million in seed funding from Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, 1948 Ventures, a16z Speedrun, Mekorot, and angel investors.
Private Equity
- Percheron Capital completed a $1.63 billion recapitalization of Big Brand Tire & Service, a Moorpark, Calif.-based chain of tire and car service stores. Blue Owl Capital, ICONIQ, and Warburg Pincus co-led the recapitalization.
- Copilot Capital acquired a majority stake in Zendr, a Solna, Sweden-based business-to-business logistics platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- LawnPRO Partners, backed by HCI Equity, acquired Sea of Green Lawn Care, an East Kingston, N.H.-based lawn care services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Thoma Bravo acquired a minority stake in SDC Capital Partners, a New York City-based infrastructure investment firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
