India’s Emergent Hits $100M ARR in Just 8 Months
▼ Summary
– Emergent, an Indian AI-powered “vibe-coding” platform, has reached an annual revenue run-rate of $100 million and has over 6 million users globally, with 150,000 paying customers.
– The platform’s growth is driven by non-technical users and small businesses, with 70% of users having no coding experience, primarily using it to digitize operations and build custom business software.
– The startup has launched a mobile app that allows users to build and publish applications directly to major app stores using text or voice prompts, reflecting a focus on mobile-first development.
– Emergent’s revenue comes from subscriptions, usage-based pricing, and hosting fees, with its largest markets being the U.S. and Europe, though India is its fastest-growing market.
– The company recently raised $70 million in funding, tripling its valuation to $300 million, and is beginning to test enterprise offerings while its core user base expands rapidly.
The rapid rise of Emergent, an Indian vibe-coding platform, demonstrates the explosive global demand for AI-powered software creation tools. In just eight months since its launch, the startup has achieved an annual run-rate revenue exceeding $100 million, a figure it doubled in the past month alone. This remarkable growth is fueled by a global user base of over six million people across 190 countries, including approximately 150,000 paying customers who have collectively built more than seven million applications on the platform.
A significant portion of this adoption comes from non-technical users and small businesses. Nearly 40% of Emergent’s users are small businesses, and about 70% have no prior coding experience. According to co-founder and CEO Mukund Jha, these customers primarily use the platform to digitize operations that were once managed through spreadsheets or messaging apps, and to construct custom software solutions without writing traditional code. This trend aligns with the surging worldwide interest in “vibe-coding,” where individuals use natural language and AI agents to build production-ready applications.
The platform faces competition from other players like Replit and Lovable, but its user activity reveals a strong commercial focus. Most applications built on Emergent are business-facing tools, such as custom customer relationship management systems, enterprise resource planning software, and inventory management platforms. Notably, 80% to 90% of new projects are focused on mobile apps, highlighting a clear demand for software that can be deployed quickly and used on mobile devices.
Emergent’s revenue model combines subscriptions, usage-based pricing, and fees for deployment and hosting. Jha reports that all three segments are expanding quickly, with the company’s gross margins improving each month. “Growth is accelerating,” Jha stated. “As the models and platforms are improving, we’re seeing a lot more users getting to success.”
While current usage is dominated by consumers and small businesses, Emergent is exploring the enterprise market. The company has begun pilot programs with a select number of customers to develop an offering that meets stricter requirements for security, compliance, and governance. Geographically, the United States and Europe generate about 70% of total revenue, though India stands as the next-largest and fastest-growing market, aided by local pricing strategies that attract small businesses.
In a significant product expansion, Emergent recently launched a mobile app for iOS and Android. This application allows users to create software and publish it directly to major app stores. Already in testing, the mobile app has been used to build over 10,000 applications. It supports text prompts and voice conversations with AI to build apps, websites, or platforms, and allows seamless switching between mobile and desktop without losing progress.
Jha explained that the mobile launch supports the platform’s asynchronous, agent-based workflow, where users assign tasks to AI and review the results later. With a growing number of users already accessing the platform via mobile browsers and a high proportion of apps being built for mobile use, introducing a native application was a logical progression for the company.
Headquartered in San Francisco with an office in Bengaluru, Emergent gained considerable attention earlier this year after securing $70 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Khosla Ventures. This investment, which followed a $23 million Series A round by less than four months, tripled the startup’s valuation to $300 million, underscoring strong investor confidence in its trajectory and the broader market for AI-assisted development.
(Source: TechCrunch)
