Indian AI Startup Sarvam AI Nears $300-$350 Million Funding Round

On April 5, Bloomberg reported that Indian AI startup Sarvam AI is nearing the completion of a funding round between $300 million and $350 million, aimed at building a local artificial intelligence company to compete with industry leaders. According to insiders, the company’s valuation for this round is approximately $1.5 billion to $1.55 billion, with completion expected as early as next week. Bessemer Venture Partners is likely to lead the investment, with participation from Nvidia, Amazon, and Prosperity7 Ventures. Due to the confidential nature of the discussions, these individuals requested anonymity. Sarvam AI was founded in 2023 by AI researchers Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar. The company’s model primarily operates through voice commands and supports 22 Indian languages. They believe this will create a significant competitive advantage in India, which has a population of 1.45 billion, as the vast majority of people are unable to read, write, or input in English. Their goal is to challenge companies like OpenAI and Alphabet Inc., whose models often perform poorly when handling Indian languages.