Sarvam AI bags $41 Million in series A funding led by Lightspeed

NEW DELHI: In the biggest ever series A (early stage) funding for an Indian AI (artificial intelligence) startup, Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI has bagged $41 million in funding led by Lightspeed. Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures also participated in the investment round. The funding underlines a buoyant investor appetite for new age firms operating in the AI space even as the broader startup ecosystem is grappling with a funding slowdown.

Founded by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam AI operates in the generative AI space, a technology which has been gaining ground in recent months. The company is building the full stack for generative AI ranging from research-led innovations in training custom AI models to an enterprise-grade platform for deployment. “…..this full-stack approach will accelerate adoption of GenAI in India, especially given that enterprises see the potential of GenAIbut are grappling with how to leverage it for their business,” the company said in a statement. The startup said that it will also work with Indian enterprises to co-build domain-specific AI models on their data. “Finally, the company aims to create population-scale impact layering GenAI on top of the highly successful India stack specifically for public-good applications,” it said.

Sarvam AI’s strategy will be to focus on India’s unique needs. This will include training AI models to support the diverse set of local languages and voice first interfaces. Harshjit Sethi, managing director at Peak XV said that large scale adoption of AI in India will not only require building unique Indian use cases but also delivering them at affordable prices. “We are excited by Sarvam AI’s unique approach in combining model innovation and application development to build population scale solutions for India,” added Hemant Mohapatra, partner at Lightspeed.