January 22, 2026: In the high-stakes theater of Indian tech, the “second act” is often more telling than the first. Mukund Jha, the architect behind the hyperlocal pioneer Dunzo, has officially stepped back into the spotlight. His new venture, Emergent, is trading the logistical friction of delivery for the high-margin scalability of AI.
On Tuesday, the company announced a $70 million Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund and Khosla Ventures. This carries significant symbolic weight; it is SoftBank’s first fresh investment in an Indian startup in over three years. The deal signals a renewed appetite for Indian-born deep tech.
7 Months, $50M ARR: Why Investors Poured Money into Emergent
The velocity of Emergent’s ascent is an anomaly. This Series B arrives just four months after a $23 million Series A. It is fueled by a staggering $50 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) achieved within only seven months of launch.
For an industry nursing a “post-Dunzo” hangover of high burn, the agentic vibe coding platform numbers are a refreshing palate cleanser. While the company kept its valuation under wraps (though reports peg it near $300M), the cap table includes heavyweights like Lightspeed, Prosus, and Y Combinator.
The strategy focuses on “coding agents.” These are AI-driven entities designed to bridge the gap between a business idea and a functional application. Jha calls it the “democratization of software building.” It envisions a future where the barrier to entry is no longer technical literacy, but purely the quality of the idea.
With a fresh war chest, the plan is to expand R&D hubs in San Francisco and Bengaluru. By straddling these two vital tech corridors, Emergent is positioning itself to lead a “massive trend.” Software will no longer be written line-by-line; it will be architected by intelligent agents.
Emergent’s core product focuses on “coding agents.” These are autonomous AI entities that design, build, and deploy software through natural language. Jha calls it the “democratization of software building.”
The vision is simple: move the barrier of entry from technical skill to pure creativity. With hubs in San Francisco and Bengaluru, the startup is hiring aggressively to lead this “massive trend.”
With Jha’s platform one can build production-ready apps through conversation. Chat with AI agents that design, code, and deploy your application from start to finish.
As Vinod Khosla noted, this isn’t about the “next product cycle.” It is a bet on the long-term evolution of how software is created and monetized. If Jha can move these agents from a buzzword to a reliable enterprise tool, this $70M will look like a bargain in hindsight.
