Rocket.new (formerly DhiWise) is an AI app-building platform from Surat, India, that turns natural-language prompts into production-ready apps, with a North American headquarters planned in Palo Alto.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what Rocket.new does, how it makes money, who backs it, how it compares with rivals and what could go wrong, using publicly available information. It is educational and not investment advice. Last updated: October 2026.

Rocket.new in Brief

• What it is: Rocket.new is an Indian AI app builder (vibe coding) company based in Surat.
• Who it serves: businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers.
• Turns natural-language prompts or designs into dashboards, internal tools, consumer apps and mobile apps
• Reports 400,000 users in 180+ countries and over 500,000 completed applications
• Free trial of up to 1 million tokens; premium plans from $25 per month
• Funding: Over $9.5 million raised before the latest round, plus about $15 million (about $24.5 million combined; reports differ).

Rocket.new Quick Facts

Figures marked “reported” come from published reports and may differ between sources; “Not disclosed” means no reliable public figure was found.

What Is Rocket.new?

Rocket.new operates in the AI app builder (vibe coding) space in India. Understanding a company like this starts with three questions: who is the customer, what painful problem is being solved, and why the solution is better than the alternatives. The sections below apply that lens to Rocket.new.

• Turns natural-language prompts or designs into dashboards, internal tools, consumer apps and mobile apps
• Reports 400,000 users in 180+ countries and over 500,000 completed applications
• Free trial of up to 1 million tokens; premium plans from $25 per month
• Built on LLMs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini plus its own deep learning systems

The Origin Story of Rocket.new

Every company starts from a noticed gap and a team willing to commit to closing it. Strong origin stories are specific: a clear problem, a founding team with relevant skills, and an early product that real customers could test. Founder-market fit, meaning the team’s lived experience or technical depth in the domain, tends to predict how fast a young company learns.

• Founders: Vishal Virani, Rahul Shingala, Deepak Dhanak.
• Rocket.new grew out of DhiWise, a developer low-code startup founded in 2021 in Surat by Vishal Virani and Rahul Shingala
• Coverage also names Deepak Dhanak as a founder
• DhiWise raised $7 million in August 2022 from Accel, India Quotient, Together Fund and others
• Its own models are trained on data from DhiWise
• The seed round closed about four months after Rocket launched

Key Milestones and Challenges

No startup grows in a straight line. Early years usually involve slow adoption, product rewrites, hiring mistakes and funding gaps. In the AI app builder (vibe coding) sector the common turning points are a first paying customer, a regulatory approval, a successful product demonstration or a funding round that lets the team invest ahead of demand. How a team responds to setbacks says more about resilience than any single headline.

• 2021: DhiWise founded in Surat
• August 2022: $7 million raised
• 2025: Rocket.new launched; seed or extended Series A of about $15 million led by Salesforce Ventures
• 400,000 users and 500,000+ apps built (company claim)
• Plans: Palo Alto headquarters and doubling the engineering team

Rocket.new Funding and Investors

Funding history shows how much outside confidence a company has attracted and how long it can operate before needing more capital. Figures below are reported and may differ between sources; valuation figures are estimates unless the company has confirmed them.

• Aug 2022: $7 million, Accel, India Quotient, Together Fund (DhiWise)
• 2025 (September per one report): about $15 million (Rs 131.4 crore): Salesforce Ventures Rs 74.46 crore, Accel Rs 49.26 crore, Together Fund Rs 7.67 crore

How Does Rocket.new Make Money? (Business Model)

A business model describes who pays, how often and how much it costs to serve them. Strong models show repeat usage, improving margins with scale and acquisition channels that do not depend only on paid spend. Weak models show one-off sales, rising costs and growth that stops when spending stops. For companies selling to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers, sales cycles and contract size matter as much as headline growth.

• Freemium subscriptions with token-based usage
• Premium plans from $25 per month
• Revenue split: US 26 percent, Europe 15 to 20 percent, India 10 percent
• Gross margin 50 to 55 percent, with a target of 60 to 70 percent

The Numbers: Rocket.new Financials

Financial figures show whether growth is turning into a self-sustaining business. Small and private companies often disclose little, so any number below is included only if it was found in public reporting.

• FY24 (DhiWise standalone): revenue Rs 3.5 crore, loss Rs 11 crore (up 46%)
• FY25 not yet filed at the time of the report
• Rocket ARR $4.5 million with a projected $20 to $25 million by year end (company claims)

Market Opportunity for Rocket.new

Market size is easy to exaggerate, so a useful approach separates the total market from the portion a company can realistically reach with its current product and distribution. The main forces behind demand in this sector are rising digital adoption, cloud and mobile penetration, growing enterprise technology spending, government digitisation programmes and a deep pool of engineering talent. Each of these widens the opportunity, but capital efficiency and execution decide who captures it.

• Fast-growing AI app-building and vibe coding market
• Users reported moving over from Replit and Lovable

Technology and Product at Rocket.new

Technology is rarely the whole moat, but it drives speed, cost and customer experience. A practical way to assess it is to separate the capability the company controls from the commodity infrastructure it rents. In this sector the important factors are product quality, data and integration depth, security, scalability and the speed of shipping improvements.

• Multi-LLM stack (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini) plus proprietary deep learning systems
• CEO says the architecture differs from Lovable and Bolt

Team and Culture at Rocket.new

Teams are the most important and least measurable asset of a young company. Look at how complementary the founders’ skills are, how deep the second layer of leadership is, and how the company hires and retains specialists. Culture shows up in small repeated behaviours: how quickly bad news travels upward and whether commitments to customers are kept.

• Vishal Virani, CEO
• Rahul Shingala and Deepak Dhanak, co-founders
• Founders hold about 36 percent combined; Accel holds 18.87 percent

Rocket.new Competitors: Competitive Landscape

A fair competitive analysis names direct rivals, adjacent players who could move into the space, and the customer’s default alternative. Durable advantages include proprietary data or technology, licences and approvals, brand trust, switching costs and cost leadership.

Risks and Challenges for Rocket.new

• Low gross margin and heavy dependence on third-party model providers
• Intense competition from well funded rivals
• Historic losses at DhiWise exceeded revenue
• Funding and valuation reports conflict
• Competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth.
• Funding risk: technology businesses often burn cash before reaching profit and depend on investor appetite.

Risk is not a reason to avoid a company; it is a reason to price it correctly and to monitor the right indicators over time. Regulation in this sector is shaped by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

Rocket.new Growth Outlook: What to Watch

• Fresh capital supports US expansion and hiring
• Targeted growth to $20 to $25 million ARR is a company projection
• Key indicators: recurring revenue, customer retention, gross margin, customer acquisition cost and runway.
• Funding position: Whether Rocket.new can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
• Regulation: Changes from data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

Industry Context: Where Rocket.new Fits

India's technology startup ecosystem is one of the largest in the world, supported by cheap data, a large base of smartphone users, digital public infrastructure and a deep engineering talent pool. Companies now build for education, software, mobility, logistics, agriculture, defence, media and more, selling both to Indian customers and abroad.

Durable technology companies usually combine a clear customer problem with repeatable distribution and disciplined unit economics. Growth funded only by spending tends to fade, while products that customers keep using and paying for build compounding advantages.

For readers new to this field, a useful habit is to separate announcements from evidence. A plan, a partnership or a funding headline describes intent, while a delivered product, a paying customer or an audited financial statement describes results. Comparing the two over time shows how reliably a company turns promises into outcomes.

Bull Case and Bear Case for Rocket.new

An investment thesis is a short, testable statement of why a company could become far more valuable, together with what evidence would prove it wrong. The points below are general to this sector and are not forecasts for Rocket.new.

Bull case

• A large and growing base of digital users and businesses expands the addressable market.
• Recurring revenue and strong retention can compound growth.
• Selling into global markets widens the opportunity beyond India.

Bear case

• Heavy competition can compress pricing and margins.
• Dependence on external funding can force painful cost cuts.
• Regulation or platform changes can disrupt a product quickly.

Lessons Founders and Investors Can Take from Rocket.new

Studying a company in the AI app builder (vibe coding) space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about Rocket.new.

• Solving a clear, frequent customer problem matters more than adding features.
• Retention and repeat usage are better health signals than sign-ups.
• Disciplined spending extends runway and keeps options open when funding tightens.
• Distribution, not just product quality, decides who wins in crowded markets.
• Building trust through data protection and reliability is part of the product.

How to Evaluate Rocket.new as a Startup

• Customer clarity: Can Rocket.new name its customer and the problem it solves in one sentence?
• Evidence of demand: Look for repeat customers, signed contracts or measurable usage rather than announcements alone.
• Economics: Check whether margins improve as volume grows.
• Execution: Compare announced timelines with what has actually been delivered.
• Funding runway: Estimate how long current capital lasts at the present spending rate.
• Regulatory standing: Confirm required approvals are in place.
• Customer concentration: Check whether a few customers account for most of the revenue.
• Management depth: Look for experienced leaders beyond the founders and a stable core team.

The Takeaway

Rocket.new is part of India’s growing AI app builder (vibe coding) ecosystem. The useful lesson from studying it is the discipline of asking structured questions about customers, economics, advantage and resilience. Companies that answer them well, repeatedly and under pressure are the ones that endure. Readers should treat any single report, ranking or funding headline as one input among many, and should re-check key facts against recent company announcements. Because public information on young companies is often limited, patience in verifying claims is part of good analysis. Public sources can also describe the same company in different ways, so it is worth checking dates, definitions and whether a figure refers to revenue, total income or transaction value, and whether it covers one entity or a wider group, before drawing conclusions. Small differences in rounding, currency conversion or reporting periods can also change how a figure reads. Comparing the same figure across several recent reports helps show whether it is stable or has changed over time. This article is educational and is not investment advice.

• Clear customers and repeat demand matter more than announcements.
• Regulation and capital needs shape how fast a startup in this sector can grow.
• Track a few leading indicators over time rather than one headline metric.

Rocket.new FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Rocket.new?

Rocket.new (formerly DhiWise) is an AI app-building platform from Surat, India, that turns natural-language prompts into production-ready apps, with a North American headquarters planned in Palo Alto. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded Rocket.new?

Rocket.new was founded by Vishal Virani, Rahul Shingala, Deepak Dhanak, and the company reports a founding year of 2021.

How much funding has Rocket.new raised?

Over $9.5 million raised before the latest round, plus about $15 million (about $24.5 million combined; reports differ). Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does Rocket.new make money?

Rocket.new earns revenue from its AI app builder (vibe coding) products and services sold to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers. The exact revenue mix is described in the business model section and is not fully disclosed publicly.

Who are the competitors of Rocket.new?

Reported rivals include Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, Replit. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for Rocket.new?

Main risks include competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth, funding and capital needs, competition and regulation by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules. This is educational content, not investment advice.

Related Startup Deep Dives: SingleDebt — SingleDebt says it has helped over 50,000 debt accounts | The Yarn Bazaar — FY25 revenue Rs 63.3 crore, up 54%, net loss narrowed to Rs 3 crore. Browse the full Startup Deep Dive series.

Source

Source: Publicly available data, published reports, industry research, and other credible sources.