Sarvam AI Emerges from Stealth Mode with $41 Million Funding in Just Five Months
Indian startup Sarvam AI, founded only five months ago, has raised an impressive $41 million in funding as it accelerates its efforts to develop a comprehensive suite of generative AI solutions. The funding, secured across Seed and Series A financing rounds, saw Lightspeed leading the Series A and co-leading the Seed round with Peak XV Partners. Additional participation in the Series A came from Peak XV and Khosla Ventures.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, Sarvam AI is dedicated to constructing large language models (LLMs) that specifically cater to Indian languages. Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Sarvam AI, revealed to TechCrunch that the startup is also in the process of creating a versatile platform allowing businesses to utilize LLMs for various applications, from app development to deployment on popular channels, log monitoring, and custom evaluation.
The startup’s focus extends to developing LLMs that prioritize voice as the primary interface in India. Raghavan explained that this approach, coupled with support for local languages, aims to address the unique requirements of the Indian market. By adapting existing open models and training them in custom ways, Sarvam AI aims to produce models that are more efficient in understanding and generating Indian languages than existing LLMs.
Co-founded by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, both with previous experience at the tech-backed AI4Bharat of IIT Madras, Sarvam AI plans to unveil its first model to the public in the coming weeks.
The investment in Sarvam AI comes at a time when global investors are actively seeking opportunities in AI breakthroughs, anticipating that advancements in AI will enhance efficiency across various industries. Despite India’s robust startup ecosystem, the nation has yet to produce significant contenders in the rapidly evolving AI landscape dominated by giants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Amazon-backed Anthropic, and Google’s Bard.
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, emphasized the strategic importance of companies like Sarvam AI in developing GenAI models tailored for India. Khosla Ventures, the first institutional investor in OpenAI, believes that Sarvam AI’s deep expertise is essential for building AI solutions in and for India.
Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed, commended Sarvam AI’s unique approach, combining model innovation and application development to create population-scale solutions for India. He expressed Lightspeed’s commitment to being close partners, contributing capital and insights from their global platform.
Harshjit Sethi, Managing Director of Peak XV, highlighted the exceptional caliber of Sarvam AI’s team, emphasizing their unique position to develop population-scale AI applications for India. The startup aims not only to create Indian-specific use cases but also to deliver them at affordable prices for widespread adoption.