India’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup ecosystem has welcomed another unicorn as Emergent raised $130 million in its Series C funding round. With this investment, the startup’s valuation has reached $1.5 billion, making it India’s sixth unicorn of 2026 and the country’s third homegrown AI unicorn after Krutrim and Sarvam.
The latest funding highlights the growing interest of global investors in Indian AI startups that are building products for users around the world. Founded in 2024 by twin brothers Mukund Jha and Madhav Jha, Emergent has quickly become one of the fastest-growing AI companies by helping people build software without writing any code.
Emergent raises $130 million to fuel global growth
The Series C funding round was led by private equity firm Creaegis. Other investors included MNI Ventures, Sentinel Global and Claypond Capital, the family investment office of Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai. Existing investors such as Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed and Y Combinator also joined the round.
The entire $130 million investment is primary funding, which means no founders, employees or existing investors sold their shares. The company said the fresh money will give it enough financial support for more than 18 months as it expands its business.
With this round, Emergent has now raised a total of $230 million since it was founded. Its funding journey has been very fast. The company raised $7 million in seed funding in 2024, followed by a $23 million Series A round in September 2025. It also received an investment from Google’s AI Futures Fund in December 2025 before raising $70 million in its Series B funding in January 2026.
The startup plans to use the new funds to improve its products, hire more talented engineers, expand into new international markets, support open-source AI research and launch new AI products.
AI platform lets anyone build apps without coding
Emergent is known for its AI-powered “vibe coding” platform. Users simply explain what they want to build in plain English, and the AI takes care of coding, testing, deployment and hosting.
The platform makes it possible for entrepreneurs, small businesses and people with no programming knowledge to create complete web and mobile applications. The company has also launched “Wingman,” an AI agent that works through messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and iMessage.
Emergent is headquartered in San Francisco, while its main engineering team works from Bengaluru. The company currently has around 200 employees. It earns money through subscription plans, extra AI token usage and hosting fees for apps built on its platform.
The startup has seen impressive growth in the last few months. Since December 2025, both its revenue and user base have grown nearly four times.
Today, more than 11 million users from 190 countries have created over 12 million applications using Emergent. The platform receives around 25 million visits every month, and nearly 70% of its users have never written code before.
Around half of the users are small businesses, while entrepreneurs make up about 40% and development agencies account for the remaining 10%. North America and Europe each contribute around one-third of the company’s business, while India contributes between 6% and 9% of its total revenue.
User engagement has also improved. Nearly half of all apps built on the platform are used every week, and about 27% already have payment systems built into them. The company also says that 80% to 85% of serious users now successfully launch their applications, compared to around 60% to 70% earlier this year.
Revenue debate and what’s next for Emergent
Along with its rapid growth, Emergent has also been part of a discussion about how it reports its revenue. The company recently announced an annualised revenue run-rate of $120 million. Unlike traditional software companies that report Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), Emergent calculates its run-rate by taking recent monthly revenue and projecting it over a full year.
Some industry experts have questioned whether this method gives a complete picture of the company’s financial performance.
In response, CEO Mukund Jha said Emergent collected $8.3 million in actual cash revenue in March 2026, which supports a yearly run-rate of around $100 million. Investor Vinod Khosla also defended the company, saying that actual cash collections are one of the most important measures of a private company’s performance.
Emergent also said that around 65% to 70% of its monthly revenue comes from loyal power users, mainly small and medium-sized businesses spending more than $300 every month. Revenue from these customers often doubles within a few months of joining the platform.
The company has shared several customer success stories. A PhD toxicologist built a cosmetics safety platform that now earns around $60,000 every month. A medical educator created a clinical intelligence platform that generates between $600,000 and $700,000 in revenue. A logistics entrepreneur in South Africa developed a fleet management app in just two months, while an auto parts company in Bengaluru built a logistics system that reduced delivery time by nearly 50%.
Looking ahead, CEO Mukund Jha believes Emergent’s biggest strength is not just its AI technology but the real-world data collected from millions of applications built on its platform. This data helps the AI learn from real user experiences and improve over time.
With fresh funding, millions of users and strong global demand, Emergent is now aiming to become one of the world’s leading AI software companies while showing how Indian startups are making a bigger impact in the global AI industry.