Vibe coding’s push beyond just mockups

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In focus

• Emergent takes on Lovable and Bolt with an AI coding tool for the masses
• Revisit our visual story about India’s generative AI scene
• Zapier CEO downplays AI agent hype

Hello reader,

My first interaction with a computer was in 1994, when my father bought a PC to run a custom inventory management software he got from a local developer. The idea was for me and my brothers to learn some programming, he said.

Instead, my brother installed SimFarm, and I’ve been hooked on PC gaming ever since. But I still haven’t learned to code even after three decades.

That’s why the promise of vibe coding – that anyone can build software using AI – resonates with me. But I’m also skeptical: Using AI to create a fancy website or a mockup of an app is one thing, trusting AI to produce a fully functioning app for the masses is another.

Which brings me to today’s Big Story about Emergent, the AI coding startup founded by former Dunzo CTO Mukund Jha and his twin brother, Madhav Jha. Unlike Lovable or Bolt, which lean toward front-end prototypes, Emergent says it can deliver production-ready apps by having AI agents handle both front- and back-end work.

In my own test, that claim held up – up to a point. I got an AI-powered invoicing app scaffolded with a working back-end, but I couldn’t deploy it without paying for more usage credits. And with rivals like Base44 and Replit now moving in the same direction, the bigger question is whether Emergent can defend its niche in a crowded space.

One thing seems clear: Emergent won’t be the last. With millions of developers already in the market and non-technical users like me now entering the picture, the fight over who vibe coding is really for has only just begun.

Glenn Kaonang, journalist

The Big Story

Emergent promises to finish what Lovable and Bolt left undone

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Emergent CEO Mukund Jha argues that most AI coding tools still leave non-developers stuck, since they rely on third-party services to handle the back-end. So Emergent uses its own agents to manage those pieces instead – users only need to describe what they want rather than patch things together.

That pitch has drawn in 1.5 million registered users in just three months. The company claims that 70% to 80% of them have little to no technical background, while paying users have generated US$15 million in annual recurring revenue.

A visual story you shouldn’t miss

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