Business

Sarvam AI Becomes India’s Sovereign AI Unicorn

BENGALURU: Indian AI startup Sarvam has raised USD 234 million in a Series B funding round, reaching a valuation of USD 1.5 billion and becoming India’s second AI unicorn following Krutrim.

The funding marks the first close of a planned USD 300 million round. HCLTech led the investment with a USD 150 million contribution, acquiring a 10.46% stake in the company. Venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners co-led the round, while existing investors Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners also participated.

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The announcement comes at a time when many countries are focusing on becoming self-reliant with respect to AI. Concerns over access to foreign AI technologies have increased after recent restrictions on the export of advanced AI models from the Unites States. Against this backdrop, Sarvam is establishing itself as an Indian alternative. The company focuses on building AI models that are trained in India, use Indian datasets, and are controlled locally.

Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar founded the startup in 2023 as part of AI4Bharat, a research initiative at IIT Madras. The government of India then picked Sarvam in 2025 to build India’s homegrown LLM under the IndiaAI Mission. The company later released its open-source Sarvam 30B and Sarvam 105B models, which support all 22 official Indian languages.

Sarvam’s technology is already being used across large-scale public projects. As per the company, its AI-powered voice agents have managed to garner information from 17 million farmers as part of a government agriculture initiative. The company also supported an insurance campaign that helped with policy renewals for a whopping 45 million customers. Overall, Sarvam says its platform currently handles around 2 million conversations and 10 million API calls every day. Also including developments like indigenous AI smart glasses

HCLTech believes the partnership can further help expand the adoption of AI solutions across industries. The IT services giant has strong relationships in sectors such as banking, insurance, healthcare, and government services, which could help Sarvam reach more and more customers in the days to come.

“Our investment in Sarvam marks a significant step towards building India’s trusted and globally competitive AI ecosystem,” HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar said, signing off.

Amita Parul

Amita Parul is an Independent journalist with experience in reporting and commentary on current events and sociopolitical developments. She contributes original reporting and analysis that aligns with Tea4Tech’s editorial standards for accuracy, transparency, and context, focusing on business and technology trends. || Amita covers emerging news stories and provides explanatory insights that help readers understand both the events and their implications.