Bengaluru: AI startup Emergent has raised $130 million in a funding round that values the company at $1.5 billion, making it a unicorn less than a year after its public launch. The company, which enables users without coding skills to build web and mobile applications using AI, plans to use the capital for product development and global expansion.Private equity firm Creaegis led the round, with Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai’s family investment office Claypond Capital and Sentinel Global joining as co-lead investors. Existing backers Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed and Y Combinator also participated. The latest round takes Emergent’s total funding to $230 million.The funding values the company five times its previous valuation of $300 million.“If you look at December to now, the business has grown fourfold, both in terms of revenue and users. Our customer acquisition cost has come down significantly, our gross margins have improved substantially, and our retention has improved significantly,” cofounder and CEO Mukund Jha told TOI.“We are also seeing many more users build complex applications. Our thesis was that businesses closest to a problem would build, run and operate their own software. That thesis is largely playing out,” he added.Founded by Jha and cofounder Surojit Chatterjee, the San Francisco- and Bengaluru-based startup allows entrepreneurs and businesses to build full-stack web and mobile applications using autonomous AI agents.Around 11 million users have built more than 12 million applications on the platform. The company’s current monthly revenue translates into an annualised run-rate of $120 million, Jha said. Emergent crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue in February.Hundreds of thousands of applications built on the platform have already been deployed, collectively attracting about 25 million visits every month. Nearly half are used every week, while about 27% of deployed applications have integrated payment capabilities.“We are seeing commerce and retail companies use us to manage inventory autonomously, services businesses use AI agents for job scheduling, and companies manage their social media accounts through agents,” Jha said.Small businesses account for about half of Emergent’s commercial user base, entrepreneurs contribute around 40%, and development agencies make up the remaining 10%.North America and Europe each contribute about a third of the company’s revenue, while India accounts for around 8-9%. A large majority of revenue now comes from existing customers, Jha said.
