Indian Vibe Coding Startups Have Officially Arrived

India is known for its talented engineers and strong service industry, but its startups have often struggled to lead in global products. Earlier, it was argued that while the West is advancing vibe coding platforms, India is still stuck on low-code tools.

That narrative is now changing, with Indian vibe-coding startups gaining momentum.

Leading the charge are Zoho, Emergent, Rocket.new, and Composio. Indian cloud service provider NxtGen also entered the market and launched M for Coding, an AI coding autopilot to provide developers, enterprises, and government institutions with a secure AI coding solution. The platform is developed entirely in India and runs on NxtGen’s GPU cloud infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Surat-based Rocket.new recently raised $15 million in seed funding led by Salesforce Ventures, with Accel and Together Fund also participating. The startup is developing an AI-powered platform that lets users generate production-ready applications from simple natural language prompts.

In an exclusive interview with AIM Network, Rocket.new CEO Vishal Virani said that most web coding tools “create a dazzling demo and fall apart once real users arrive,” highlighting that platforms such as Replit, Cursor and Lovable are primarily western ventures.

Virani calls this challenge the “day two problem,” the moment after the initial wow, when bugs, brittle code, and endless rework set in.“Our answer is vibe solutioning. It blends the speed of natural language prompts with the discipline of production engineering,” he said.

He explained that instead of a single-page mockup, Rocket delivers a clean code base with authentication, payments, integrations, and mobile-ready interfaces that can be deployed directly.

Unlike drag-and-drop tools, Rocket fuses Anthropic and Google Gemini models with proprietary deep learning systems trained on years of data. The platform generates enterprise-grade code in around 25 minutes, slightly slower than rivals but robust enough for Fortune 100 teams piloting it in production.

Virani claimed that Rocket prioritises quality over speed. “Users don’t want the code in three minutes,” he said. “What they want is a complete, comprehensive solution that takes the cognitive load off them.”

Since its beta launch in June 2025, Rocket has achieved remarkable milestones, including over 400,000 users in 180 countries, more than 10,000 paying subscribers, and 500,000 production-ready apps built. The company has reached $4.5 million in annual recurring revenue, with projections of $20 to $25 million by the end of the year and $60 to $70 million by June 2026.

For comparison, Lovable grew from $1 million to $75 million ARR within seven months of launch and surpassed $100 million ARR in eight months. Cursor reached $100 million ARR in just 12 months after its public launch and has since grown even faster, crossing $500 million ARR as of October 2025. Replit has also crossed $100 million ARR.

Emergent is Rising

Not far behind, Emergent, founded by brothers Mukund Jha and Madhav Jha, went from zero to $15 million in annual recurring revenue in just 90 days. The startup also secured $23 million in Series A funding, with Lightspeed leading the round and contributions from Together Fund, Y Combinator, Prosus Ventures, and notable individuals such as Jeff Dean, Devendra Chaplot, and Balaji Srinivasan.

This meteoric rise makes it not only one of the fastest-growing AI startups globally, but the fastest ever out of India. While many no-code platforms require users to grapple with technical jargon, Emergent abstracts the entire software cycle. Users simply describe the app they want, and AI agents design, code, deploy, and even autofix bugs.

The Jha brothers, who both started programming at age 12, spotted a gap in the market for zero-barrier app creation.

“When AI became capable of automating software development, it felt like the most interesting problem to solve. Our goal was to make coding accessible to anyone with an idea,” Mukund told AIM Network.

Much like the case of Rocket.new, the brothers built Emergent after noticing that many AI coding platforms produced only front-end prototypes that failed in real-world use. Emergent offers a full end-to-end application development platform capable of building production-grade software.

Keeping Indian Roots While Scaling Globally

Rocket.new maintains its headquarters in Surat while expanding in Palo Alto. “In the world of AI, people don’t care where you’re from, it’s all about product quality. We’re proud to be a Surat-headquartered company with users in 180 countries,” Virani said.

The team had confidence in their vision even before the product launched. “We knew it was going to create a lasting impact. Early organic traction proved that zip code doesn’t matter if you build the right product,” Virani reflected.

With India’s government pushing for homegrown technology, Rocket exemplifies the potential for world-class Indian AI products. “If we can build a UPI moment, we can build anything. India has the talent, vision, and youth to create global moments,” Virani said.

Rocket.new generates 26% of its revenue from the United States, 15–20% from Europe, and roughly 10% from India.

Rocket.new is not alone. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has publicly backed Zoho’s Swadeshi push, saying he has switched to its office suite and urging others to do the same. Founder Sridhar Vembu, meanwhile, says Zoho is now capable of taking on Microsoft.

Earlier this year, Zoho launched Zoho CoCreator, which simplifies and accelerates the process of building apps for both developers and non-technical users. It enables users to build and refine applications using written prompts, process diagrams, or business specification documents.

Similarly, despite a global footprint with offices in San Francisco and Bangalore, Emergent maintains its Indian identity. “Most of our team is from India, comprising top IT rankers, national Olympiad winners, chess champions, and repeat founders,” said Mukund. The company is aggressively hiring across engineering, product, design, and business roles in India.

From Surat to Silicon Valley, India’s vibe coding startups are proving that world-class AI products can be built and scaled from the home soil. The era of India as a global product powerhouse has officially begun.

The post Indian Vibe Coding Startups Have Officially Arrived appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 comments
Oldest
New Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest stories

You might also like...