Wix Acquires Base44, Profitable LLM Vibe-Coding Startup, for $80M
Wix has acquired Base44, a profitable AI coding product, for $80 million in cash. The acquisition includes a $25 million retention bonus for Base44's eight employees. The startup, founded by 31-year-old Israeli developer Maor Shlomo, grew to 250,000 users in just six months and was already profitable.
Base44, an AI coding platform, enables users to create applications by entering text prompts. The startup was founded by Maor Shlomo as a side venture and expanded through word of mouth. Shlomo chose to use Anthropic's Claude AI through AWS for cost-per-performance advantages. Despite its rapid growth and profitability, Base44 was sold to Wix after only six months of operation. The sale price of $80 million is significantly lower than OpenAI's $3 billion acquisition of similar startup Windsurf in 2021. The reasons behind Shlomo's decision to sell Base44 remain unclear, as neither he nor Wix have publicly commented on the acquisition or the purchase price.
The acquisition of Base44 by Wix for $80 million, including a $25 million retention bonus for employees, marks a significant deal in the AI coding space. Despite the lack of official statements, the sale price and rapid growth of Base44 suggest that it was a strategic and valuable acquisition for Wix. As the tech industry continues to evolve, further insights into the motivations behind such acquisitions may emerge.
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