Sarvam AI's growth: a blend of human innovation, advanced AI, and strategic funding.
Bengaluru-based AI startup Sarvam AI is reportedly in discussions to secure up to $250 million in a new funding round led by Nvidia, Accel, and HCLTech. According to a Moneycontrol report, this round could value the company at approximately $1.5 billion, marking a significant increase in valuation in less than two years.
If finalized, this funding would position Sarvam as one of the youngest startups to achieve unicorn status. Founded in August 2023 by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam last raised $41 million in a Series A round in December 2023. Lightspeed led the round, with participation from Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures.
Sarvam is focused on building sovereign AI capabilities within India. At the recent India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, the startup introduced two large language models, Sarvam-30B and Sarvam-105B, both trained in India and optimized for Indian languages and enterprise applications. Sarvam-30B is designed as a cost-efficient model, while Sarvam-105B supports complex reasoning and agent-like workflows.
The startup claims its models are competitive with global peers in reasoning, coding, and Indic language tasks. Sarvam has open-sourced its models as part of a strategy to foster a domestic AI ecosystem. The company also offers platforms like Saras and Bulbul, along with enterprise platforms such as Samvaad and Arya. Sarvam recently expanded into hardware with “Kaze,” AI-powered smart glasses for real-time audio and visual input processing.
Sarvam operates alongside other Indian startups like Gnani.ai and the BharatGen consortium, reflecting a move towards a distributed, ecosystem-led approach to AI development.
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