Anysphere (company)

Anysphere, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryArtificial intelligence · developer tools
Founded2022[1]
FoundersMichael Truell · Sualeh Asif · Arvid Lunnemark · Aman Sanger[1]
Headquarters
San Francisco, California[2]
,
United States
Key people
Michael Truell (Cofounder & CEO)
ProductsCursor (AI-native code editor)[3]
Revenue>US$500 million ARR (2025)[4]
Number of employees
~150 (2025)[5]

Anysphere, Inc. is an American artificial-intelligence software company best known for developing Cursor, an “AI-native” integrated development environment (IDE) that writes, edits and debugs code with large-language models. Founded in 2022 by four Massachusetts Institute of Technology classmates, the San Francisco–based startup became one of the fastest-growing software companies in history, surpassing US$500 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) three years after launch and achieving a US$9.9 billion valuation in 2025.[1][3]

History

Founding and seed funding (2022–2023)

The company was incorporated in 2022 by Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark and Aman Sanger while they were students at MIT.[1] In October 2023 the startup announced an US$8 million seed round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, with angels including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi.[1]

Series A and valuation spike (2024)

Rapid user growth of Cursor prompted unsolicited term-sheets from venture firms. In November 2024 TechCrunch reported that Benchmark, Index Ventures and others were bidding up Anysphere’s valuation to about US$2.5 billion - only four months after a US$60 million Series A that had valued the company at US$400 million.[6]

Series B talks and Series C round (2025)

In March 2025 the company was reported to be negotiating a round that would value it near US$10 billion.[7] On 5 June 2025 Anysphere confirmed a US$900 million Series C led by Thrive Capital, lifting its post-money valuation to US$9.9 billion.[3]

Products

Cursor is a fork of Visual Studio Code that embeds proprietary AI agents for code autocomplete, debugging, refactoring and natural-language Q&A across large codebases.[1] The editor integrates models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI and, as of 2025, claims to generate close to one billion lines of code per day for more than one million daily users.[8]

Business performance

Anysphere crossed US$100 million ARR in January 2025 - 14 months after launch - and topped US$500 million ARR by June 2025.[9] The company was named a newcomer on the Forbes AI 50 list published 10 April 2025.[10]

Corporate culture

Anysphere prohibits the use of AI tools during the first round of coding interviews and invites finalists for a two-day on-site project with the core team.[11] CEO Michael Truell stated on The Verge podcast Decoder that the company intentionally “stays lean,” employing roughly 150 people worldwide.[12]

Controversies

AI support-bot hallucination (April 2025)

An AI-driven help-desk agent named “Sam” invented a non-existent “one-device” login policy, triggering user cancellations before staff intervened and issued refunds.[13]

Pricing backlash (July 2025)

A change to Cursor’s US$20 “Pro” plan - switching from 500 requests to a usage-metered cap - provoked complaints about unexpected charges; the firm rolled back limits and promised refunds.[14][15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiggers, Kyle (11 October 2023). "Anysphere raises $8M from OpenAI to build an AI-powered IDE". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  2. ^ "Anysphere headquarters". The Org. 9 August 2025. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Temkin, Marina (5 June 2025). "Cursor's Anysphere nabs $9.9B valuation, soars past $500M ARR". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  4. ^ Shibu, Sherin (6 June 2025). "The fastest-growing startup ever just surpassed $500 million in annual revenue. Here's why it keeps growing, according to its CEO". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  5. ^ Newton, Casey (4 August 2025). "Why tech is racing to adopt AI coding". The Verge. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  6. ^ Temkin, Marina (8 November 2024). "Benchmark, Index, others are in a wild unsolicited bidding war over Anysphere, maker of Cursor". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  7. ^ Temkin, Marina (7 March 2025). "Cursor in talks to raise at a $10B valuation as AI coding sector booms". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  8. ^ Financial Times staff (May 2025). "Maker of AI 'vibe coding' app Cursor hits $9bn valuation". Financial Times. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  9. ^ Shibu, Sherin (6 June 2025). "The fastest-growing startup ever just surpassed $500 million in annual revenue. Here's why it keeps growing, according to its CEO". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  10. ^ Forbes Staff (10 April 2025). "Forbes announces seventh annual AI 50 list, featuring the most prominent AI startups in the world". Forbes. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  11. ^ "Inside Cursor's hiring strategy: no AI in interviews and a two-day project with the team". Business Insider. 12 June 2025. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  12. ^ Newton, Casey (4 August 2025). "Why tech is racing to adopt AI coding". The Verge. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  13. ^ Edwards, Benj (21 April 2025). "Company apologizes after AI support agent invents policy that causes user uproar". Ars Technica. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  14. ^ Zeff, Maxwell (7 July 2025). "Cursor apologizes for unclear pricing changes that upset users". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  15. ^ Mazza, Rosalia (12 July 2025). "Cursor faces backlash over Pro plan pricing shift". FinTech Weekly. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
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