Sarvam AI Nears $350 Million Funding Round, Eyes Leadership in India’s AI Push
Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence startup Sarvam AI is reportedly in advanced talks to raise between $300 million and $350 million in a fresh funding round, according to a Bloomberg report. The move signals the company’s ambitions to emerge as a strong domestic competitor to global technology giants.
The funding round is expected to value the startup between $1.5 billion and $1.55 billion, with discussions nearing completion and a potential close as early as next week.
Investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners is likely to lead the round, while major global players including Nvidia, Amazon, and Prosperity7 Ventures are expected to participate.
The development comes at a time when India is intensifying efforts to build sovereign AI capabilities and reduce dependence on technologies developed in the United States and China. Artificial intelligence has been identified as a key strategic focus under the government’s IndiaAI Mission, which has been allocated approximately ₹10,372 crore.
Sarvam AI gained significant attention earlier this year during the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, where it showcased its indigenous technology stack. The company introduced AI models tailored to India’s linguistic and cultural diversity, positioning itself as a pioneer in localized AI innovation.
The startup has developed large language models with 30 billion and 105 billion parameters, trained within India. These models are designed to enhance performance across multiple Indian languages. With a voice-first approach, the systems support 22 Indian languages, catering to a vast user base that primarily interacts in non-English languages.
Speaking at the February event, co-founder Pratyush Kumar emphasized the company’s mission to democratize AI access, stating that the goal is to bring homegrown AI capabilities to over a billion Indians.
Founded in 2023 by Pratyush Kumar and Vivek Raghavan, Sarvam AI is also working on advanced “agentic” AI systems. These systems are designed to autonomously perform tasks such as coding and scheduling with minimal human intervention, targeting enterprise adoption in one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets.
As part of broader efforts to strengthen India’s AI ecosystem, the company has received infrastructure support, including access to high-performance computing resources such as NVIDIA H100 chips through Yotta Data Services.
