Base44 Sells to Wix for $80M – 6-Month-Old Vibe Coding Startup

In just six months, Base44, a vibe-coding startup led by Israeli solo founder Maor Shlomo, skyrocketed to 250,000 users and grabbed an $80M cash acquisition from Wix, proving solo-run startups can pack a serious punch.

🚀 From Side Project to $80M Acquisition in Six Months — The Base44 Story

Ever heard the buzz about "solo unicorns"? Those mythical one-person companies worth a billion dollars thanks to AI mojo? Well, full disclosure: none have been spotted just yet. But if anyone’s inching close to making that legend real, it’s the Israeli vibe coder Maor Shlomo and his brainchild, Base44.

💡 What’s vibe coding, you ask?

Think of vibe coding like AI-powered magic that lets people build full-on apps by just typing text prompts. No messy lines of code, no endless debugging — the platform handles backend stuff like databases, analytics, authentication, even email and texting. It’s low-code meets no-code, but with AI wizardry that’s accessible to both devs and non-devs.

🎉 The impressive six-month sprint

Launched as a side hustle, Base44 went full throttle as a stand-alone startup just half a year ago. Shlomo bootstrapped this venture, growing it to over 250,000 users with the first 10,000 hopping on board within three weeks. (Yes, weeks!) By May, Base44 was pulling in about $189,000 in monthly profit—after paying for expensive large language model (LLM) token costs. Talk about efficiency!

💰 The $80M Wix deal

Wix, king of user-friendly website builders, swooped in and snagged Base44 for a cool $80 million — and it was all cash, thank you very much. While Shlomo was the solo owner behind the venture, he wasn’t flying completely solo anymore: eight employees were on board, who collectively are set to receive $25 million as a retention bonus (details on the terms remain under wraps).

🛠️ Why Wix?

Wix knows its lane: sleek, easy-to-use, no-code tools for creating stunning websites. Adding a vibe coding platform that’s not only growing fast but already profitable is a no-brainer win. With Base44’s tech and team under its wing, Wix can scale even faster in the AI-driven coding space.

📣 How Base44 spread like wildfire

Shlomo documented his building journey on LinkedIn and Twitter, drawing a community of enthusiastic users mostly through word-of-mouth. Part of the appeal? Transparency. He was open about the financials, including high costs from using Anthropic’s Claude LLM via AWS instead of OpenAI’s offerings (mostly for better bang for the buck). This openness earned him invited demos and partnerships with major Israeli tech players like eToro and Similarweb.

🔥 The founder’s background and future plans

The 31-year-old coder wasn’t exactly a startup rookie; he’s well-known from his previous venture, Explorium, a data analytics company backed by Insight Partners. And innovation runs in the family — his brother co-founded Token Security, a hot AI security startup recently funded by Notable Capital and others.

Despite the rocket-speed growth, Shlomo chose to sell Base44 because organic scaling alone couldn’t meet the volume and resources needed to push it even further. Now, with Wix's muscle behind it, the future looks ready for warp speed.

🌟 Why this matters for AI and startups

Proof that small teams (or almost solo founders) can punch way above their weight in the AI age.
Vibe coding is carving out a new frontier in no-code tools — democratizing app creation for everyone.
Bootstrapping ain’t dead. With the right product and community, you can grow fast and profitable without endless rounds of funding.
Strategic acquisitions by big players like Wix signal growing confidence in AI-driven development platforms.

🤔 Who should care?

Solo founders and indie hackers wondering if they can build something big all on their own (spoiler: they can get pretty close).
Product builders and no-code enthusiasts curious about the future of AI-assisted app creation.
Investors keeping tabs on the hottest, fastest-growing AI startups that might be acquisition targets.
Everyone who loves a good underdog story with a tech twist!

💬 In short? Maor Shlomo and Base44 just dialed the solo-entrepreneur dream up a notch. Not quite unicorn territory yet, but it’s tantalizingly close. And if this vibe coding trend keeps gaining speed, we might just meet those mythical solo unicorns sooner than expected.

Quick links & references:

Stay tuned for more AI startup wins and eyebrow-raising solo founder feats! 🚀