Anysphere, the parent company of AI-driven code editor Cursor, has recently announced the acquisition of AI coding assistant Supermaven. The specific transaction amount was not disclosed.
Michael Truell, CEO of Anysphere, shared the acquisition news on the Cursor blog. He stated that Supermaven will support Anysphere in launching the new Tab AI model, which is characterized by its speed, context awareness, and high intelligence, particularly excelling in handling extensive code sequences.
Truell highlighted that while Supermaven's plugins will continue to receive support, Cursor will become the team's primary focus. He explained that this aligns with Supermaven's earlier strategy to shift towards the editor domain due to extension API limitations hindering their desired feature development. In his post, Truell stated, "Why collaborate? Because we have a significant amount of work ahead, and it appears that by joining forces, we can develop a more valuable product more rapidly."
Jacob Jackson founded Supermaven, having previously co-founded the AI coding assistant Tabnine. In 2019, Jackson sold Tabnine to Codata and subsequently joined OpenAI as an intern, remaining there until 2022.
Supermaven serves as an AI coding platform akin to Tabnine but features multiple enhancements in user experience and technological capabilities. Its proprietary generative AI model, Babble, is capable of processing large codebases concurrently and offers exceptionally low latency due to its custom architecture.
By September, Supermaven had attracted over 35,000 registered developers. The company has also successfully secured $12 million in funding from investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, OpenAI co-founder John Schulman, and Perplexity co-founder Denis Yarats.
Since its inception in February, Supermaven had no intentions of being sold. However, Jackson indicated that the time was now appropriate. In a blog post on Supermaven, he wrote, "As Supermaven has progressed, we recognized that the next phase for our product involves not only more intelligent models but also a new suite of features designed in tandem with the user interface. Initially, our focus was on developing our own editor, but through interactions with the Cursor team, I became convinced that together we could create a more valuable product than what Supermaven could achieve independently."
As an integral part of Cursor, the Supermaven team will collaborate on designing the editor's user interface alongside the model, Jackson added.
Reports indicate that the acquisition coincides with Anysphere receiving private bids from firms such as Benchmark, Index Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at up to $2.5 billion. Founded in 2022 by Truell, Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark, and Aman Sanger, Anysphere has attracted considerable attention in recent weeks.
The AI coding tools market is substantial and continually expanding, with Polaris Research forecasting its value to reach $27.17 billion by 2032. GitHub's latest developer survey reveals that an overwhelming majority of respondents have adopted some form of AI tool, with over 1.8 million individuals and approximately 50,000 companies subscribing to GitHub Copilot.
AI-powered coding assistant startups like Augment, Codeium, Magic, and Poolside are numerous. Nevertheless, Cursor has emerged as one of the more favored options among them. Sources reveal that Cursor's monthly revenue has surged to $4 million.
