Emergent, an Indian startup that lets non-programmers build software using AI agents, has raised $130 million in a Series C round that values the company at $1.5 billion, the company announced. The round makes Emergent a unicorn a little over a year after its public launch.
The financing was led by Creaegis, with co-leads MNI Ventures-Claypond Capital and Sentinel Global, and participation from Khosla Ventures, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed and Y Combinator, according to Emergent. The new round brings the company’s total funding to $230 million and roughly triples its valuation from the $1 billion it reached in its Series B round in January, per the company.
From idea to app, no code required
Emergent’s platform uses AI agents to write, test, deploy and debug software from a plain-language description, aiming to let entrepreneurs and small businesses build custom applications without hiring developers. The company says more than 12 million applications have been built on the platform since launch, and that roughly 70% of its users had never written code before.
Emergent was founded in June 2024 by brothers Mukund Jha, chief executive, and Madhav Jha, chief technology officer. The company, based mainly in Bengaluru with a smaller team in San Francisco, employs about 200 people, according to Emergent and TechCrunch, which first reported the funding.
Rapid revenue growth
Emergent said its annualized revenue run-rate has reached $120 million, up 70% over the past four months, with more than 200,000 paying customers. Creaegis managing partner Prakash Parthasarathy said small businesses now have “a historic moment to build, automate, and operate using autonomous platforms” to compete with larger rivals.
The raise is the latest sign of investor appetite for so-called agentic coding platforms, which use AI to automate large parts of software development rather than simply assisting a human programmer.