Emergent raises $70 million from Khosla Ventures and SoftBank at $300-million valuation as AI funding stays hot

Emergent founders: Mukund (L) and Madhav Jha (R)

• Emergent raised $70M led by Khosla Ventures, with SoftBank as investor
• Funds to launch new products, grow B2B sales, and open a Europe office
• Emergent now has 5 million users in 190 countries and $50 million ARR

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Emergent, the vibe coding platform, has raised $70 million in a fresh funding round that was led by Khosla Ventures, with SoftBank also joining as an investor, Mukund Jha, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, told Moneycontrol in an interview, as artificial intelligence (AI) startups continue to attract capital from investors across the board.

Moneycontrol was the first to report on Emergent’s latest fundraise involving Khosla Ventures and SoftBank on December 11. 

What are the details of the round? 

Khosla has led the latest round by investing around $35 million in Emergent. SoftBank has put in another $25 million or so and the remaining $10 million came from existing investors such as Prosus, Lightspeed, Together, and Y Combinator, per sources.

Jha did not comment on the specifics of the round.

What will the funds be used for?

Emergent will use the funds to launch new products, strengthen offerings to smartphone users, kickoff enterprise relationships (B2B sales), hire more employees and set up an office in Europe, Jha told Moneycontrol.

All of these will help Emergent double its current revenue run rate.

The San Francisco and Bengaluru-based startup had annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $25 million less than two months ago and is now clocking an ARR of $50 million. The company is projected to cross $100 million ARR by April 2026.

It had around 1.5 million users shipping apps globally less than three months ago and now it has a user base of 5 million across 190 countries.

“These numbers are going to look small the next time we speak. Emergent is among the fastest-growing AI companies globally and the fastest-growing tech startup ever in India by revenue scale,” Jha said.

Emergent raised $23 million from Prosus and Lightspeed in September 2025 and then received strategic funding from Google soon after. It has now raised a fresh round at a $300 million valuation, demonstrating stellar growth in around a year since its launch.

“Emergent is growing at a pace we rarely see because it is tapping into a segment that has never been served,” said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures.

The round also marks SoftBank’s return, after the investor has remained on the sidelines for over two years. “Whenever a constraint is removed, in any sector, a new and large business is created. It has happened with quick commerce and is happening with Emergent which is helping users build apps,” Sarthak Misra, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers told Moneycontrol.

This is also among one of the smaller cheques SoftBank has written for a startup in recent times. “We will write the right cheque for the relevant companies. We have the flexibility to play. We would love to do larger rounds as well but are equally happy to do rounds of this size. If there were lots of companies to choose from, we would consider but today we don’t feel the need to…” Misra added.

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Who are Emergent's founders?

CEO Mukund is a Columbia Engineering graduate and former Google engineer who had also co-founded hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo.  His brother, Madhav, is an ex-Amazon AI scientist and worked as a machine learning engineer at Dropbox before starting Emergent.

What does Emergent do?

The startup, which launched three months ago, offers an AI-powered app builder that enables users to create production-ready web and mobile apps without writing code.

The platform handles backend infrastructure, logins, payments, deployment, and scaling, making it suitable for individuals, solopreneurs, and small business owners.

Emergent competes with Replit, Lovable and others. The company monetises through subscription plans ranging from $20 to $200 per month, with additional deployment fees. Users span 180 countries, with 20 percent in India and the rest in the US, the UK, and Europe.

Emergent has around 80 employees and 80 percent of them are based in India. India, as a market, however is the fourth largest and accounts for 20 percent of the business after the US, UK and Europe, Jha concluded.