Emergent Raises $30M to Democratize App Development with AI-Powered Vibe Coding

Emergent raises $23M from Lightspeed to let consumers build apps

In the last decade, as the camera quality of smartphones improved, platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok rose in popularity for photo and video sharing. Many people turned from casual posters to money-earning creators. Emergent, a company built by twin brothers Mukund and Madhav Jha, aims to become a similar platform for consumers when it comes to app creation. The platform allows non-technical users to create an app using prompts. While that's not a unique pitch in 2025, Emergent intends to aid users through the app development process, while also managing different APIs and deployment steps so they don't have to worry about various technicalities. The startup said on Wednesday it has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed, with participation from Y Combinator, Together (Founders of Freshworks' Together Fund), and leading angels including former a16z GP Balaji Srinivasan, Google's Jeff Dean, and Mistral founding team member Devendra Chaplo. The company has raised $30 million to date. Mukund, who was CTO at Google-backed quick commerce startup Dunzo in India, left the company and went to the U.S. There, he started thinking about what he wanted to build with his brother Madhav, who worked at Dropbox. "Both of us are very technical, and we have been into programming since we were 12. Late in 2023, we spent time with people at different AI labs, and we realized AI-powered coding is going to take off given how much effort they were allocating to get coding data right," Mukund told TechCrunch over a call. "We had a strong belief in powerful agents coming online. But we felt that given AI's development trajectory, agent-based app development is going to be a huge part of the economy, and we felt that was the problem we wanted to solve for the next twenty years." The company is clear that it doesn't want to compete with developer-focused tools like Claude Code and Cursor, and wants to abstract the software development lifecycle for a non-technical user. Mukund said that the company has built infrastructure chops from the ground up to support app development. He added that non-technical users might not want to know what an error in a code means, so it has developed AI agents to look for errors in the app and fix them. I tested the app by building a vaccine and medicine tracker for my pets. While I started with a simple prompt, the agent asked a lot of questions about what kind of pets I wanted to add, if the app was for multiple people or just me, how I would like reminders to be scheduled, and a bunch of other options. It also added screens like a dashboard and an easy way to add pets and vaccinations, even though I didn't specify it. The whole process of building and auto-testing the app took me less than half an hour, and I got a satisfactory first version of the app out of it. A lot of other vibe coding apps I have tried have failed to generate apps for their own pre-generated prompts. Emergent does have a bit of an edge there. Mukund said that more than 1 million people have built over 1.5 million apps since the tool's launch last year. People are eager to try vibe coding apps as an experiment, but tools will also have to make users stay with the platform and maintain the apps. The company said that since it also takes care of deployment and backend infrastructure, it is easier to maintain apps for people. Right now, the startup is using Expo as a mobile client to deploy mobile apps, but it said that soon it will be launching its own mobile app to natively build apps. To integrate different platforms, it also uses a universal API key with shared usage that saves users from having to create accounts for different services or model providers. At face value, vibe coding apps claim that you can build apps without any technical experience. Despite that, when you start building an app, you encounter technical terms and systems. The company said that it wants to educate users on technical topics, such as what is an API and how to choose different components, such as an email sending mechanism. Emergent is also building a brainstorming mode for new users who might have an idea but wouldn't know the final shape of their app. This new mode will help them navigate through the ideation stage. For an app economy to become sustainable, developers want other users to discover their apps and get paid in the process as well. Right now, Emergent shows some apps on its home page, but that is about it. Developers can integrate a payment option like Stripe, but they have to bring their own API key. Going forward, Emergent wants to make both discovery and monetization easier. Emergent has a lot of competition in the space. Startups like Canva and Figma, along with browsers like Perplexity, Comet, and Opera Neon, are nudging users to write mini apps. Multiple startups are working on vibe coding solutions that cater to a largely non-technical audience, including Seven Seven Six-backed Vibecode and Rocket, fresh out of an Accel-backed $15 million Series A funding round. Hemant Mohapatra, a partner at Lightspeed, said that the venture firm was looking for a startup with deep technical expertise in bringing app-making capabilities to the masses, and Emergent performed above expectations in its testing. "One of the biggest roadblocks for participating in the digital economy is the ability to code. We wanted to invest in a company that brings the capability bar [for being able to code] next to zero, so [appmaking] becomes a function of intent," Mohapatra told TechCrunch over a call. He noted that Emergent stood out from others because the platform enables the post-development lifecycle of deployment, sharing, bug fixing, and support with AI.

Agentic Vibe Coding Startup Emergent Secures $23 million in Series A funding | AIM

The platform experienced swift adoption, with Emergent exceeding $15 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within just 90 days. Emergent, an agentic vibe-coding platform, secured $23 million in Series A funding, with Lightspeed leading the round and contributions from Together Fund, Y Combinator, Prosus Ventures, and notable individuals such as Jeff Dean, Devendra Chaplot, and Balaji Srinivasan. This funding round increases Emergent's total financing to $30 million, which also includes a $7 million seed funding round supported by Y Combinator and Together Fund. The company said the capital will be used to expand the team, enhance research investments, and further develop the platform, according to the press release. The product has experienced swift adoption, with Emergent exceeding $15 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within just 90 days. This milestone has empowered over one million users to create more than 1.5 million applications. "Emergent addresses the technical friction of starting or growing a business. As the only vibe coding platform that enables users to build highly customizable, production-ready apps, our platform unlocks new possibilities for everyone - not just software engineers," Mukund Jha, cofounder and CEO, said. The company highlights that the platform enables software development for individuals without prior programming experience. Emergent's technology, including its AI coding agent, was developed in-house to ensure security and reliability. "Emergent collapses the complexity of software into a single button anyone can press to ship, scale, and earn, and Lightspeed is proud to back them on this exciting journey," Hemant Mohapatra, partner at Lightspeed, added. The product is ready to use immediately, providing users with a launch-ready app that includes automated logins, payments, backend, and scalability. This signifies a shift in who can create software and who benefits from it. The platform can support small business owners, solo founders, or creators in building and launching production-ready software without requiring coding.

Emergent AI raises $23 million from Lightspeed, Together Fund, others - The Economic Times

The company intends to use the fresh capital to hire talent across engineering and research, develop new product features, and improve the reliability and scalability of the platform.Vibe coding platform Emergent AI has raised $23 million in a round led by Lightspeed, with participation from Together Fund, Y Combinator, Prosus Ventures, and angel investors such as Jeff Dean, Devendra Chaplot, and Balaji Srinivasan. With the new capital, the startup's total fundraise has touched $30 million, including a previous $7 million seed round. ET had reported about this on August 19. Founded in 2025 by brothers Mukund and Madhav Jha, Emergent enables users to build production-ready software without writing any code, using just natural language prompts. In the backend, it uses a suite of autonomous AI agents that handle frontend interfaces, backend infrastructure, testing, deployment, and integration. The brothers' vision was to lower traditional barriers to software creation, such as the need for capital, technical expertise, or a developer budget, especially for small business owners and individual creators. "Our mission is to democratise software development for the masses. We want to bring the next billion people into software creation, making sure that anyone with an idea and a phone can build what they envision," Mukund, the firm's cofounder and CEO, said. The app builder, which went live three months ago, has already crossed $15 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and claims to have over a million registered users who have collectively launched over two million apps, Mukund told ET. "He (Madhav) brings years of research experience, including work with Amazon's deep learning team, while I focus on engineering and product. After leaving Dunzo, we assessed where we could create lasting impact, and found ourselves drawn to enabling mass access and autonomy in software engineering'', Mukund added. The company intends to use the fresh capital to hire talent across engineering and research, develop new product features, and improve the reliability and scalability of the platform. Funds will also be allocated to boost investment in Emergent's core AI technology, expand its agentic coding tech, and deepen market reach among non-technical users. The business model focusses on providing an out-of-the-box solution for users who need robust applications supporting payments, authentication, backend logic, and automated scaling. While continuously building out its agentic network, Mukund said the startup is betting on reinforcement learning (RL) as the next core area of investment. RL is a machine learning technique where software learns to make decisions by interacting with an environment, using trial and error to maximise cumulative benefits. Emergent's growth comes as the software industry is moving towards no-code and agentic platforms. ET reported on Tuesday about Surat-based Rocket AI's $15 million fundraise, another company which enables software creation through natural language prompts.

Emergent raises $30m to accelerate global growth and expand into MENA

Emergent's entry into the region will empower entrepreneurs and small businesses to build and scale applications without coding Mukund Jha, co-founder and CEO and Madhav Jha, co-founder of Emergent (Left to Right)/Image: Supplied Emergent, one of the world's fastest-growing AI startups, has announced $30m in total funding, including a $23m Series A led by Lightspeed. This follows a $7m seed round earlier this year. Founded in 2025 in San Francisco, the company has already achieved $15m in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within just 90 days of launch, underscoring its rapid trajectory. With MENA fast becoming a hub for software innovation and SME digital transformation, Emergent's entry into the region will empower entrepreneurs and small businesses to build and scale applications without coding. Participation in the funding round also included YC, Together, Prosus, and leading angel investors such as Jeff Dean (Google), Devendra Chaplot (Thinking Machines), Siqi Chen (Runway), Srinivasan Venkatachary (Google DeepMind), Prasanna (Rippling), and Balaji Srinivasan. Emergent's agentic vibe-coding platform enables anyone -- from solo founders to SMEs -- to build full-stack, production-grade applications powered by autonomous AI agents. Unlike existing tools, Emergent provides a ready-to-use app from day one, managing everything from user interfaces to servers, logins, payments, and scalability. Its specialised AI agents code, test, and launch applications, offering the equivalent of a cloud-based development team that can identify and fix issues, sustain long sessions, and retain context. Built entirely in-house, the platform's coding agent and infrastructure are designed for speed, reliability, and security. "My brother and I built Emergent to equip anyone with an idea and a phone with the tools to create software affordably," shared Mukund Jha, co-founder and CEO. "For decades, the biggest barrier to innovation has been access to technical talent and capital. We designed Emergent to remove those barriers so that anyone, from a shopkeeper to a startup founder, can bring their vision to life at a fraction of the time and cost. In regions like MENA, where governments are driving digital-first economies and SMEs form the backbone of growth, we see a tremendous opportunity. Our platform ensures that innovation is no longer limited to software engineers, it belongs to everyone." Globally, small businesses and individuals are already deploying Emergent to solve real problems. Examples include a jewelry store owner who streamlined pricing across 50 outlets and now sells her app to others; a healthcare provider digitising wheelchair inventory with photo-based onboarding; and an EV marketplace app in the UK. In Dubai, a professional attending an AI course used Emergent to build a voice-powered productivity app in a week, which he is now developing into a full-scale tool for creators, professionals, and researchers. "Remember when photography demanded understanding lenses, aperture, lighting, film development, and more? Then the iPhone compressed all of it into a single button for billions of people. Emergent collapses the complexity of software into a single button anyone can press to ship, scale, and earn, and Lightspeed is proud to back them on this exciting journey," said Hemant Mohapatra, partner at Lightspeed. The new funding will fuel Emergent's expansion into high-growth regions including the Middle East, where governments are driving digital transformation and SME empowerment under initiatives such as UAE Vision 2030 and Saudi Vision 2030. Every spreadsheet hack, manual workflow, or "there should be an app for that" idea can now be turned into software with Emergent's platform. To date, Emergent has enabled over 1 million users to create more than 1.5 million apps across industries from retail and healthcare to logistics and personal productivity.