In the last decade, as the camera quality of smartphones improved, platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok rose in popularity for photo and video sharing. Many people turned from casual posters to money-earning creators.

Emergent, a company built by twin brothers Mukund and Madhav Jha, aims to become a similar platform for consumers when it comes to app creation. The platform allows non-technical users to create an app using prompts.

While that’s not a unique pitch in 2025, Emergent intends to aid users through the app development process, while also managing different APIs and deployment steps so they don’t have to worry about various technicalities.

The startup said on Wednesday it has raised $23 million in Series A funding led by Lightspeed, with participation from Y Combinator, Together (founders of Freshworks’ Together Fund), and leading angels including former a16z GP Balaji Srinivasan, Google’s Jeff Dean, and Mistral founding team member Devendra Chaplot. The company has raised $30 million to date.

Mukund, who was CTO at Google-backed quick commerce startup Dunzo in India, left the company and went to the U.S. There, he started thinking about what he wanted to build with his brother Madhav, who worked at Dropbox.

“Both of us are very technical, and we have been into programming since we were 12. Late in 2023, we spent time with people at different AI labs, and we realized AI-powered coding is going to take off given how much effort they were allocating to get coding data right,” Mukund told TechCrunch over a call.

“We had a strong belief in powerful agents coming online. But we felt that given AI’s development trajectory, agent-based app development is going to be a huge part of the economy, and we felt that was the problem we wanted to solve for the next 20 years.”

The company is clear that it doesn’t want to compete with developer-focused tools like Claude Code and Cursor, and wants to abstract the software development lifecycle for a non-technical user.

Mukund said that the company has built infrastructure chops from the ground up to support app development. He added that non-technical users might not want to know what an error in a code means, so it has developed AI agents to look for errors in the app and fix them.

I tested the app by building a vaccine and medicine tracker for my pets. While I started with a simple prompt, the agent asked a lot of questions about what kind of pets I wanted to add, if the app was for multiple people or just me, how I would like reminders to be scheduled, and a bunch of other options. It also added screens like a dashboard and an easy way to add pets and vaccinations, even though I didn’t specify it.

The whole process of building and auto-testing the app took me less than half an hour, and I got a satisfactory first version of the app out of it. A lot of other vibe coding apps I have tried have failed to generate apps for their own pre-generated prompts. Emergent does have a bit of an edge there.

Mukund said that more than 1 million people have built over 1.5 million apps since the tool’s launch last year. People are eager to try vibe coding apps as an experiment, but tools will also have to make users stay with the platform and maintain the apps. The company said that since it also takes care of deployment and back-end infrastructure, it is easier to maintain apps for people.

Right now, the startup is using Expo as a mobile client to deploy mobile apps, but it said that soon it will be launching its own mobile app to natively build apps. To integrate different platforms, it also uses a universal API key with shared usage that saves users from having to create accounts for different services or model providers.

At face value, vibe coding apps claim that you can build apps without any technical experience. Despite that, when you start building an app, you encounter technical terms and systems. The company said that it wants to educate users on technical topics, such as what is an API and how to choose different components, such as an email-sending mechanism.

Emergent is also building a brainstorming mode for new users who might have an idea but wouldn’t know the final shape of their app. This new mode will help them navigate the ideation stage.

For an app economy to become sustainable, developers want other users to discover their apps and get paid in the process as well. Right now, Emergent shows some apps on its home page, but that is about it. Developers can integrate a payment option like Stripe, but they have to bring their own API key. Going forward, Emergent wants to make both discovery and monetization easier.

Emergent has a lot of competition in the space. Startups like Canva and Figma, along with browsers like Perplexity, Comet, and Opera Neon, are nudging users to write mini apps. Multiple startups are working on vibe coding solutions that cater to a largely non-technical audience, including Seven Seven Six-backed Vibecode and Rocket, fresh out of an Accel-backed $15 million Series A funding round.

Hemant Mohapatra, a partner at Lightspeed, said that the venture firm was looking for a startup with deep technical expertise in bringing app-making capabilities to the masses, and Emergent performed above expectations in its testing.

“One of the biggest roadblocks for participating in the digital economy is the ability to code. We wanted to invest in a company that brings the capability bar [for being able to code] next to zero, so [appmaking] becomes a function of intent,” Mohapatra told TechCrunch over a call.

He noted that Emergent stood out from others because the platform enables the post-development lifecycle of deployment, sharing, bug fixing, and support with AI.

The AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27-29 in San Francisco, is officially locked and loaded, featuring the powerhouses shaping the future of artificial intelligence.

Join the leaders from Character.AI, Hugging Face, Mercor, Runway, Wayve, and many more top tech voices as they tackle everything from generative AI and developer tools to autonomous vehicles, creative machines, and national security. Founders will get a first look at the technologies defining the next wave of innovation and will hear the strategies, lessons, and insights directly from the teams building them.

Want a front-row seat to the future of AI in scaling, investing, and building? The AI Stage is where it all happens — plus breakouts, roundtables, breakthroughs, and networking you won’t find anywhere else. Register before September 26 and save up to $668.

The complete AI Stage agenda

Explore the complete agenda for the AI Stage and all of TechCrunch Disrupt.

Betting on the Next Wave: What VCs Want in AI Startups

With Aileen Lee, founder, Cowboy Ventures; Steve Jang, founder, Kindred Ventures; and Jon McNeill, founder, DVx Ventures, former COO of Lyft and president of Tesla

Discover what opportunities are real, what is hype, and how founders can navigate the turbulence of AI’s next frontier. Learn which areas have the most potential and what common pitfalls to avoid.

Driving Intelligence

With Alex Kendall, CEO, Wayve

Explore AI-first self-driving and the race to develop autonomous systems trained end-to-end on real-world data. Learn which breakthroughs are enabling progress and which barriers still remain.

Intelligence in Motion and the Future of Physical AI

With Jeff Cardenas, CEO, Apptronik; and Raquel Urtasun, CEO, Waabi

From autonomous trucks to humanoid robots, AI is moving beyond the screen into the physical world. Discover how close we are to large-scale deployment and the challenges that remain.

Why the Next Frontier Is Search

With Edo Liberty, CEO, Pinecone

As generative AI reshapes how we find and use information, vector search is becoming the hidden backbone of the next wave of applications. Where is this technology headed, and what does it mean for startups?

Shaping the AI Stack with Hugging Face

With Thomas Wolf, co-founder and CSO, Hugging Face

The infrastructure powering AI is evolving fast. Hugging Face’s CSO breaks down the battle over models, frameworks, and platforms that will define the future AI stack.

Vibe Coding? Cute. Now Let’s Get Real and Talk About AI Built for Developers

In partnership with Kirill Skrygan, CEO, JetBrains

Forget parlor tricks — what does AI actually mean for developers writing code every day? JetBrains’ CEO digs into the tools that will last and the ones that won’t.

AI That Talks Back: Character.AI in the Spotlight

With Karandeep Anand, CEO, Character.AI

From conversation bots to lifelike digital personalities, Character.AI is reshaping human-computer interaction. Founders building in conversational AI will gain unique insights.

Creative Machines and Where AI Meets Imagination

With Soyoung Lee, co-founder and GTM, Twelve Labs; Nikola Todorovic, co-founder and CEO, Wonder Dynamics, an Autodesk company; Prateek Dixit, co-founder, PocketFM

See how AI is powering the next generation of content creation and how startups are building products that captivate millions of users across media, entertainment, and education.

From Ads to Films: Creating with Code

With Alejandro Matamala Ortiz, chief design officer, Runway

Generative video is no longer science fiction — it’s shaping ads, films, and creative workflows today. Runway’s co-founder unpacks where creative AI is headed next.

Love, Lies, and Algorithms: The Truth About AI in Matters of the Heart

With Dr. Amanda Gesselman, head of research analytics, Kinsey Institute; Mark Kantor, head of product, Tinder; and Eugenia Kuyda, founder, Replika

AI is reshaping relationships and human interaction. Discover how the next generation of dating and connection is being influenced by intelligent algorithms and what founders need to know in this space.

What Startups Can Learn from Google Cloud’s AI Playbook

With Will Grannis, CTO, Google Cloud

Learn practical lessons from one of the world’s most advanced AI operations. Explore what strategies startups can adopt, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to scale AI at every stage.

Building Intelligence for Modern Defense

With Ethan Thornton, CEO, Mach Industries

Defense is becoming one of the fastest-moving frontiers in AI. Mach Industries’ founder and CEO shares how startups are shaping the next generation of national security technology.

AI and National Security in the High-Stakes Race to Innovate

With Kathleen Fisher, director, DARPA; Sri Chandrasekar, managing partner, Point72; Justin Fanelli, CTO, U.S. Department of Navy

National security is embracing AI at unprecedented speed. Explore the opportunities, challenges, and high-stakes decisions shaping the future of defense technology.

AI Meets the Future of Work

With Brendan Foody, CEO, Mercor

Hiring, training, and productivity are actively being redefined by AI and automation. Discover how these changes will impact the future of work and what founders should know.

Smarter Streets: How AI Is Driving the Future of Transportation

With Praveen Naga, CTO, Uber; and Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president, Nuro

You’ll get a first look at how AI is transforming rides, deliveries, and the future of mobility.

Secure your access to the AI Stage now and lock in your savings

Don’t miss a single moment of the future of AI. From robotic demonstrations to in-depth discussions on AI ethics, now is the time to secure your last-minute savings of up to $668 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 pass. Register now before September 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

The Trump administration might be fond of calling the energy transition the “green new scam,” but that isn’t stopping it from seeking a significant stake in what promises to be the largest lithium mine in the Western Hemisphere.

In exchange for renegotiating the repayment period of a $2.26 billion Department of Energy loan, the Trump administration is asking for as much as 10% equity in Lithium Americas, a company in which GM is a major investor.

Reuters first reported the news Tuesday. “President Trump supports this project. He wants it to succeed and also be fair to taxpayers,” a White House official told the news organization. “But there’s no such thing as free money.”

The move would be the latest in a string of negotiations that have given the U.S. government stakes in Intel and MP Materials.

Lithium Americas is developing the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada. The first phase would produce enough lithium to make as many as 800,000 electric vehicles per year. President Trump approved the permit for the project at the tail end of his first term, and the loan was awarded by the DOE’s Loan Program Office under President Biden. 

GM bought a 38% stake in Lithium Americas last year for $625 million, a deal that also gave the automaker the right to buy the entirety of the first phase of production and 20 years of the second phase. In total, that would be enough for 1.6 million EVs for the next two decades.

The Trump administration is reportedly asking GM to guarantee those purchases, even as it works to thwart automakers’ transition to EVs.