Emergent Raises $23M from Lightspeed to Let Consumers Build Their Own Apps

Over the past decade, as smartphone cameras improved, platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok soared in popularity, turning everyday users into full-time creators. Now, Emergent, founded by twin brothers Mukund and Madhav Jha, aims to bring a similar shift to app creation, enabling anyone — even those without technical skills — to build apps with simple prompts.

On Wednesday, the company announced a $23 million Series A funding round led by Lightspeed, with participation from Y Combinator, Together Fund (founded by Freshworks’ leaders), and angel investors including former a16z GP Balaji Srinivasan, Google’s Jeff Dean, and Mistral co-founder Devendra Chaplot. To date, Emergent has raised $30 million.

Mukund, previously CTO at Google-backed Dunzo in India, relocated to the U.S. before teaming up with his brother, who had worked at Dropbox. “We’ve been into programming since we were 12,” Mukund explained. “In late 2023, after spending time with AI labs, we saw how much focus was being put on coding data. We believed agent-based app development would be a massive part of the economy for decades, and that’s the problem we wanted to solve.”

A Platform for Non-Technical Creators

Emergent differentiates itself from developer-focused tools like Claude Code and Cursor by abstracting away the technical complexities of software development. Its platform manages APIs, deployment, and back-end processes so users don’t need coding expertise.

Mukund noted that AI agents handle errors automatically, sparing users the need to decipher confusing code messages. For example, when testing the platform to build a pet vaccine and medicine tracker, the system asked follow-up questions, generated relevant screens, such as dashboards. It delivered a working app prototype in under 30 minutes.

Since launch, over 1 million users have built 1.5 million apps with Emergent. The company emphasises that its deployment and infrastructure support make it easier for non-technical users to maintain apps in the long term.

Currently, Emergent uses Expo to deploy mobile apps, but it plans to release its own native app-building client. It also simplifies third-party integrations with a universal API key, eliminating the need for users to create multiple service accounts.

Educating and Expanding the App Economy

While no-code development apps promise easy coding, they often expose users to technical jargon. Emergent aims to bridge this gap by teaching fundamental concepts, such as APIs, and helping users select tools like email services. A brainstorming mode is also in development to assist those with vague app ideas.

Emergent supports payment integration via Stripe, but developers must bring their own API keys. The company plans to expand app discovery and monetisation options, allowing creators to showcase and profit from their apps more easily.

Competitive Landscape

Emergent faces competition from platforms like Canva and Figma, as well as browsers like Perplexity, Comet, and Opera Neon, which all experiment with lightweight app creation. Startups such as Vibecode (backed by Seven Seven Six) and Rocket (recently raised $15M from Accel) are also exploring this space.

Hemant Mohapatra, partner at Lightspeed, said Emergent stood out for its deep technical capabilities. “One of the biggest roadblocks to joining the digital economy is the ability to code. We wanted to invest in a company that lowers that barrier to nearly zero so appmaking becomes about intent,” he explained. Emergent impressed the firm with its ability to handle deployment, sharing, bug fixing, and support — making it more than just a coding tool.