Ema raises $77M as AI starts eating into enterprise software and services

Ema, a startup that uses teams of AI agents to automate corporate processes across HR, IT, and finance, has raised $77 million in a new funding round as it aims to take on more of the work traditionally handled by enterprise software and IT services.

The Series B round was led by Bengaluru-based venture firm Creaegis, with existing investors Accel, Section 32, and Prosus increasing their stakes. The financing brings the startup’s total funding to $140 million and more than quadruples its valuation from its last funding round in 2024. (Ema declined to disclose its latest valuation.) The round consisted entirely of primary equity, with no debt or secondary transactions, the startup confirmed to TechCrunch.

The funding comes as AI is beginning to compete for dollars that businesses have traditionally spent on enterprise software and IT services. Startups, major AI labs, and established software companies are now fighting to capture that spending.

Founded in 2023 by former Google and Coinbase executive Surojit Chatterjee and ex-Okta executive Souvik Sen, Ema is looking to expand its position in that market. The startup deploys its technology, which it calls “AI employees” — systems that coordinate multiple AI agents. These help carry out multi-step business processes across a company’s existing applications, rather than handling a single task at a time.

Chatterjee sees that model eventually reducing companies’ reliance on traditional software products, including those sold as software-as-a-service (SaaS). Ema first “wraps” around an enterprise’s existing applications, he said, before customers can reduce their dependence on some of those products — and, in some cases, replace them altogether.

“Many of our customers are already on the way to replace [large SaaS applications] completely, removing dependency on them, because they are mostly becoming like a database,” Chatterjee said.