Chennai: Rocket, an AI software development startup backed by Salesforce Ventures, Accel and Together Fund, is targeting small and medium businesses and large enterprises by building tools around existing workflows and governance requirements. The $15 million seed-funded startup believes it can scale by focusing on business customers rather than individual developers or non-technical enthusiasts.Vishal Virani, co-founder and chief executive, said the startup is focused on the solution layer, helping users think through workflows, validations and deployable outcomes. “We are not just generating code, but solving that solution layer where we can help our users to think through all the validations,” he said. The company is deliberately avoiding the hobbyist and prosumer segment, which drives traffic but not serious revenue.It plans to plug into existing enterprise tech stacks, but winning larger, non-SMB deals and integrating into existing workflows in a market dominated by model makers and deep-pocketed western platforms remains a formidable task. When asked about this, Virani argued that distribution is not a permanent barrier to entry for larger players. “Enterprises are willing to use multiple tools as they are optimising for their use case and use whichever tool helps them,” he said. Surat-based Rocket said it has over 1.2 million users across 185 countries, with the US, Europe and India as its primary revenue markets. Deepak Dhanak, co-founder and COO, said its next leg of growth will come from expanding beyond app generation into a business platform combining app building, strategy, market intelligence and artefact building. The company believes this broader product significantly widens its addressable market beyond the crowded code-generation space.
