🚀 This week has been totally wild. Framer just secured a $2B valuation while Lovable's getting $4B offers they're not even taking. AI startups are pulling lottery winner energy and everyone's trying to figure out if the ROI is real or just hype.
This digest is about to hit harder than your favorite TikTok sound going viral. Let's dive in.
Industry moves
- Framer banks $100M at $2B valuation, taking on Figma and Squarespace. Framer, the Amsterdam- and San Francisco-based website design platform, has raised $100 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at $2 billion. The round was led by existing investors Meritech Capital Partners and Atomico.
- Europe's hottest AI unicorn Lovable surges to $4B valuation. Swedish vibe-coding startup Lovable is receiving offers of a $4 billion valuation, just weeks after its $200M Series A at $1.8 billion valuation, led by Accel, with participation from Creandum, Visionaries Club, Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Slack's Stewart Butterfield, and Remote's Job van der Voort, among others.
- Revolut-backer Lakestar raises $265M to hold late-stage portfolio winners longer. Lakestar, the European VC firm behind early investments in Spotify and Revolut, has closed a $265 million continuation fund, with secondary market specialist Lexington Partners serving as anchor investor alongside Industry Ventures and Performance Equity Management.
- US VCs poured $49B into GenAI in H1 2025, but real ROI is still out of reach. While Europe is redefining its investment landscape with GenAI, the U.S. story looks different. Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York are pouring funds into this space, with VC investment in U.S. tech startups hitting over $49 billion in H1 2025, surpassing all of 2024.
Product reality check
- TikTok now lets users send voice notes and images in DMs. TikTok is giving users new ways to interact with others via direct messages (DMs), the company told TechCrunch on Friday. Users will now be able to send voice notes and share up to nine images or videos in one-to-one and group chats on the platform.
- Vocal Image is using AI to help people communicate better. With 4 million app downloads, Estonia-based startup Vocal Image aims to help people improve their voice and communication skills with AI-powered coaching. But out of its 160,000 active users, it may be its CEO, Nick Lahoika, who best embodies its mission.
- Anthropic users face a new choice, opt out or share your chats for AI training. Anthropic is making some big changes to how it handles user data, requiring all Claude users to decide by September 28 whether they want their conversations used to train AI models.
- Threads tests a way to share long-form text on the platform. Threads is testing a new feature that makes it easy to share long-form text on the social network. The feature lets users attach a block of text to a post instead of creating a thread of several different posts when looking to share more in-depth thoughts and ideas.
Design wins
- Lazarev.agency helped WellSet platform boost engagement and secure $3.1m for expansion. The client sought a redesign that would make wellness resources easier to access, more personal, and habit-forming for both individual users and enterprise clients. The overarching goal: turn a passive content library into a growth-driving, revenue-generating wellness platform.
- Fhirst, a Belgian Y2K-inspired graphic soda. Belgian-based soda brand Fhirst returns with a fresh, unique identity: "Superfunktional Soda." Mother Design reimagined their brand strategy, naming, visual and verbal identity, and packaging, challenging the clichés of the functional beverage market.
- Cantina, Cowboy Coffee brand design. Mexico-based design studio PERSPECTIVA has unveiled the brand identity for COWBOY, a coffee brand that reinterprets American Western culture with a modern twist. COWBOY aims to be more than just a coffee shop; it's a cantina, and the project balances traditional Western style with contemporary design.
- Yankee Candle rebranding using AI. Yankee Candle, the icon of home fragrance, has undergone a brand redesign. This transformation, created in collaboration with New York-based branding agency Beardwood & Co., preserves its heritage while also reflecting a modern sensibility for a new generation.
- Innocent brand design becomes cuter. Innocent Drinks, the UK's leading fruit drink brand, has unveiled a new packaging design, partnering with independent branding agency Derek & Eric and strategist Silas Amos. The project focused on simplifying the brand's signature while reclaiming its original confidence, establishing a consistent visual identity across the country.
Events to monitor
- 3rd Annual Business & Generative AI Conference (September 4–5, 2025, San Francisco). Through focused discussions on new research and innovative thinking, the conference will examine how GenAI is reshaping business models, industries, and economies worldwide.
- Driving & Measuring Rapid AI Adoption (September 4, 2025 / 12–1 P.M. ET). Part of the Business & GenAI Conference focusing on practical AI implementation strategies and measurement frameworks.
This week's reality check
What makes an ecommerce website design convert better?
Everyone blames the price for cart abandonment. Wrong. Over half of shoppers bail because of confusion, not cost. Clunky flows. Distracting layouts. Missing trust signals.
The truth: friction kills conversion faster than high prices ever will. We've seen this with Riptide, Redbrain, and Nodo, clear structure and intuitive UX drive revenue better than any discount code. When users know exactly what to do next, they do it.
The future of product design: how AI and data will change business
As the boundaries between design, data, and AI continue to dissolve, a new paradigm is taking shape, where human-centric design meets machine-native intelligence.
We interviewed Kirill Lazarev, founder and CEO of Lazarev.agency, to answer a simple question: "What's the future of product design?" Kirill shares his deep insights on how businesses must evolve to thrive in a future shaped by personalization, intelligent agents, and context-aware interfaces.
🔥 Next week: More wins, fewer buzzwords.
