In a sign of the demand, or hype, for AI startups, Emergent, an Indian startup building an AI “vibe-coding” platform, has raised $70 million less than four months after it raised a $23 million Series A.
The Series B round was jointly led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Khosla Ventures, and values the startup at $300 million post-money, sources with knowledge of the deal told TechCrunch.
Prosus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Together, and Y Combinator also participated. Emergent has now raised $100 million within seven months of its launch.
The funding comes as Emergent claims $50 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and more than 5 million users across 190-plus countries. The startup said it is targeting ARR of more than $100 million by April 2026.
Like other vibe-coding platforms, Emergent uses AI agents to help users design, build, test and deploy full-stack web and mobile apps. It targets entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to ship products without having to hire large engineering teams.
“We continue to see massive demand across our top geographies — the U.S., Europe and India — and we’ll continue to expand deeper into these markets,” founder Mukund Jha told TechCrunch, adding that the startup’s recently launched mobile app-building service is seeing strong adoption.
Emergent co-founders Mukul Jha and Madhav JhaImage Credits:Emergent
Emergent says it is headquartered in San Francisco, but 70 of its 75 employees work out of an office in Bengaluru. The startup is hiring aggressively across functions in both countries, Jha said.
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Emergent competes with the likes of Lovable, Cursor and Replit, all of which have mushroomed into huge businesses within a couple of years of launch as AI-assisted coding enables users to develop their own apps without requiring much in the way of actual programming knowledge or skills.
To its credit, Emergent seems to have successfully tapped investor interest in such vibe-coding platforms to fund itself. Accel also backed Rocket, another India-founded startup, in a $15 million seed round last year, along with Together Fund and Salesforce Ventures.
The deal is also notable as it marks SoftBank’s return to investing in India — the firm previously backed Indian commerce startup ElasticRun nearly four years ago.
Emergent says the fresh funding will be used to expand its team, accelerate product development, and deepen its presence in key markets.
