The winter is over for top-tier Indian startups.
Emergent, an AI-powered software creation platform, has raised $70 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank Vision Fund and Khosla Ventures. This investment signals a major pivot in sentiment, marking SoftBank’s first fresh investment in an Indian startup in over three years.
🚀 THE METRICS (Speed Run): The numbers explain the valuation urgency. In just seven months since launch, Emergent has achieved:
- Users: 5 Million+.
- Revenue: $50 Million ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue).
- Trajectory: This Series B comes just four months after its $23M Series A.
🤝 THE INVESTORS: A powerhouse cap table has formed around CEO Mukund Jha (formerly of Dunzo):
- Leads: SoftBank Vision Fund, Khosla Ventures.
- Returning: Lightspeed, Prosus, Together Fund, Y Combinator.
- Strategic: Google AI Futures Fund (invested in December).
💻 THE THESIS: Emergent is betting on “Coding Agents”—AI that builds software autonomously.
- Vinod Khosla notes: “Emergent is early in shaping how software gets created and monetized over the next decade… not just the next product cycle.”
- The Goal: “Democratization of software building.” The funds will expand R&D teams in San Francisco and Bengaluru.
💡 ANALYST TAKEAWAY: Two stories matter here. First, SoftBank is back, signaling that valuations in India have potentially stabilized enough for the Vision Fund to deploy capital again. Second, the “Service-as-Software” trend is exploding. Hitting $50M ARR in 7 months is historically rare; it suggests Emergent isn’t just selling a tool, but replacing expensive human development hours with AI agents at a fraction of the cost.
👇 SaaS Founders: Is $50M ARR in 7 months the new benchmark for “AI Native” scaling, or an outlier driven by hype?