Solopreneur AI Startup Base44 Sells to Wix for $80M in 6 Months

Base44, a six-month-old startup that lets users build full software applications from simple prompts, has been acquired by Wix for $80 million in cash, the companies confirmed Wednesday. The deal marks a breakout moment for “vibe coding”—a new wave of AI-driven, no-code development platforms that build apps without writing a single line of code.

Solopreneur Maor Shlomo, a 31-year-old Israeli developer, launched Base44 as a lean, AI-first project—built in public and powered by LLMs—with a small team and no outside funding. While not literally a one-person startup—Base44 had eight employees—Shlomo remained its public face throughout its rapid rise.

Fast Growth, Strong Profits—and a Quick Exit

Base44 launched just six months ago and grew largely through word of mouth, reaching 250,000 users and profitability in May. According to posts from Shlomo, the platform generated $189,000 in monthly profit, even after factoring in substantial LLM token costs—numbers he shared openly on LinkedIn and X.

The team’s visibility and fast traction caught the attention of major players. Amazon invited Base44 to demo at a Tel Aviv AWS event last month after Shlomo detailed the company’s decision to use Claude (by Anthropic) via AWS instead of OpenAI’s models, citing better cost-performance.

Wix confirmed that $25 million of the $80 million sale price will be distributed to Base44’s employees as retention bonuses, though the company did not share details on the vesting timeline.

From Side Project to Strategic Acquisition

Shlomo described Base44 as a “moonshot experiment” aimed at letting anyone—technical or not—build software without coding at all. The platform lets users input a simple text description, then auto-generates an entire software stack, including:

• Database, storage, and authentication

• Analytics and integration tools

• Email, SMS, and map services

• A roadmap for enterprise-grade security

The tool has drawn comparisons to other LLM-first “vibe coding” startups like Adaptive Computer, but its pace of growth stood out. Base44 reached 10,000 users in its first three weeks, formed partnerships with Israeli tech firms like eToro and Similarweb, and stayed bootstrapped throughout.

Despite the strong momentum, Shlomo said the scale Base44 needed had outgrown what a small, self-funded team could support. “The scale and volume we need is not something we can organically grow into,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “If we were able to get so far organically, bootstrapped, I’m excited to see our new pace now that we have all the resources in place.”

Looking Ahead

Wix joins a growing group of incumbents looking to acquire, not build, next-gen AI capabilities. Unlike OpenAI’s $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf—a 2021-founded platform—Wix picked up Base44 early and at a steep discount relative to later-stage valuations.

As AI tools lower the barrier to building usable software, more early-stage teams may follow Base44’s playbook: bootstrap fast, stay lean, and scale visibly. In a space where compute costs still run high, transparency and profitability may be the new startup currency.

What This Means

Base44’s acquisition reflects the growing power of AI-first, no-code platforms to scale fast—and sell early. Built entirely without outside funding, and guided publicly by a single founder, the company hit traction benchmarks that once took startups years to reach.

For Wix, a company known for drag-and-drop website design, the deal adds a profitable, production-ready AI engine to its portfolio—one that could push Wix further into full-stack application development powered by large language models.

More broadly, the deal signals a new reality for solo and small-team founders: with the right model and the right LLM tools, product-market fit can arrive faster, and exits can follow.

What Startups Can Learn

Base44’s success is exceptional—but not accidental. It shows what’s possible when an LLM-powered product nails timing, transparency, and user need. That said, it’s not a universal blueprint. Startups can take these lessons:

• Build visibly: Shlomo’s open sharing built trust and drew users early.

• Profitability matters: In a space with high compute costs, showing that a product can earn is a major signal.

• Lean is okay—but clarity is essential: Shlomo didn’t have funding, but he had focus. The product solved a real problem for a specific group.

While $80 million in six months isn’t a typical outcome, the path—AI-leveraged creation, fast feedback, focused delivery—is increasingly realistic for today’s builders.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.