Indian AI Startup Raises $41M in Series A Funding, Leading the Country’s AI Revolution

New Delhi, December 22: As funding becomes scarce for Indian startups, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has provided a boost to entrepreneurs and founders in the country. In support of the sector, the Indian government has extended its assistance.
Sarvam AI, a homegrown generative AI startup, recently raised $41 million in its Series A round, making it the largest raise for an Indian AI startup at this stage. The investment was led by Lightspeed, with support from Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures. Indian AI startups have raised over $440 million to date, with more than 70 GenAI startups operating in the country.
Sarvam AI aims to develop a full-stack for Generative AI, including research-led innovations, training custom AI models, and an enterprise-grade platform for authoring and deployment. The company plans to train AI models to support Indian languages, voice-first interfaces, and co-build domain-specific AI models with Indian enterprises. The goal is to create population-scale impact by leveraging GenAI for public-good applications.
Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Sarvam AI, expressed excitement about the potential for technology to add value to people’s lives. Pratyush Kumar, the other co-founder, highlighted the company’s commitment to making AI accessible to all.
In a recent announcement, Minister of State for Information Technology and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, revealed the government’s plans to support and fund AI startups in India. The government intends to provide financial resources to build foundational AI models, large language models (LLMs), and various use cases for the technology.
Globally, GenAI startups secured $10 billion in venture capital in 2023, indicating the transformative power and widespread applicability of AI. Adarsh Jain, Director of Financial Markets team at GlobalData, believes that GenAI will continue to attract investment in the future, given its solid drivers and patenting activity.
The Indian government’s focus on AI aligns with the growing interest among enterprises. 63% of Indian companies are proactively directing investments toward AI and Machine Learning (ML) for process automation. Automation Anywhere, a global software company, revealed that 33% of these enterprises plan to adopt Generative AI for growth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced the AI Mission, emphasizing the aim to establish AI computing powers within India. The government intends to develop computational capacity for AI startups in the country.
Companies across sectors are ramping up their investments in human capital and valuations for businesses focused on GenAI capabilities are on the rise. Ola Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal introduced ‘Krutrim,’ described as ‘India’s own AI’ model. Krutrim is capable of understanding 22 Indian languages and generating content in 10, including Marathi, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Odia, Gujarati, and Malayalam. Meanwhile, CoRover.ai has partnered with Google Cloud to launch BharatGPT, an indigenous generative AI platform.
The government’s support combined with the surge of AI initiatives by startups and companies indicates a promising future for the Indian AI ecosystem. With increased funding and investments, the Indian AI startup scene is poised for growth and innovation.