Indian AI startup Rocket.new has secured $15 million in seed funding led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Accel and Together Fund. The Surat-based company is positioning itself as a serious challenger to fast-growing vibe-coding rivals like Lovable, Cursor, and Bolt — but with a deeper promise: moving beyond quick prototypes to production-ready applications built from natural language prompts.
From Beta to Breakout Growth
Launched just 16 weeks ago in June, Rocket.new has already attracted over 400,000 users across 180 countries, including 10,000+ paying subscribers. Its annual recurring revenue (ARR) has hit $4.5 million, and the team projects that number could scale to $20–25 million by year’s end and $60–70 million by June 2026, according to co-founder and CEO Vishal Virani.
Surat, better known for its diamonds and textiles, is now home to one of India’s most ambitious AI coding ventures. Virani, along with co-founders Rahul Shingala and Deepak Dhanak, pivoted from their previous startup DhiWise to build Rocket.new, targeting the broader challenge of AI-driven software development.
Beyond “Day One” Apps
Unlike many vibe-coding platforms that shine at quick demos, Rocket.new is aiming at what Virani calls the “problem of day two” — scaling, iterating, and maintaining apps after launch.
“Our agentic system is not just about generating source code,” Virani told TechXNow. “We’re helping teams research competitors, plan products, and scale functionality — all through natural language prompts.”
The startup says 80% of its users are building “serious applications” rather than simple landing pages. Among them:
- 12% are launching e-commerce platforms in groceries and apparel
- 10% are building fintech apps
- 5–6% are working on B2B tools
- 4–5% are developing mental health applications
Currently, about 45% of projects are mobile apps, while 55% are websites. Many developers use Rocket.new to extend prototypes built on platforms like Lovable or Replit into full-scale native apps.
Tech Behind the Scenes
Rocket.new integrates LLMs from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Gemini, layered with its own proprietary models trained on DhiWise datasets.
Unlike competitors that generate apps in minutes, Rocket.new takes about 25 minutes to deliver a complete, production-ready app — trading speed for depth. Early testing suggests this longer process yields apps with all essential modules included, reducing the need for post-build patchwork.
Pricing starts at $25 per month for five million tokens, with a free trial capped at one million tokens. This approach, Virani says, filters out hobbyists while maintaining healthy gross margins of 50–55%, with an eye on scaling to 70%.
Expanding Globally
The U.S. is Rocket.new’s largest market, contributing 26% of its revenue, followed by Europe (15–20%) and India (10%). To strengthen its U.S. presence, the company is setting up a Palo Alto headquarters.
“Rocket.new bridges the gap between the magic of AI code generation and the reality of enterprise deployment,” said Kartik Gupta of Salesforce Ventures.
With 58 employees in Surat, Rocket.new plans to double its engineering and product teams in the next 12 months to support its growth. The new funding will accelerate R&D, proprietary model development, and market expansion.
Why It Matters
As AI coding platforms race to capture mindshare, Rocket.new’s bet is clear: developers and enterprises need more than flashy demos — they need production-ready, scalable systems. If the startup delivers on its “day two” vision, Surat could be known not just for diamonds, but also as the home of one of India’s first AI-powered app development giants.
Sources (Techcrunch)
