Sarvam AI, co-founded by IIT Madras researchers in 2023, has been chosen by the Ministry of Electronics and IT to lead development of India’s indigenous foundational large language model (LLM) platform under the IndiaAI Mission.
The startup builds multilingual LLMs like Sarvam 2B and Shuka 1.0, trained on trillions of tokens in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and other Indian languages. Their platform supports voice agents and developer APIs designed specifically for domestic use.
Sarvam AI secured $41 million in Series A funding from Lightspeed, Peak XV, and Khosla Ventures in 2023. It partners with UIDAI to enhance Aadhaar authentication via voice assistants, and collaborates with Microsoft Azure and AI4Bharat for language voice models and open research.
Why it matters:
- Expertise & Authority: Deep academic lineage and first-mover in domestic LLM space
- Experience: Proven deployments in real-world systems like UIDAI
- Trust: Government funding and strategic partnerships
- Impact: Driving AI usability in 10+ Indian languages
Investor takeaway: Sarvam AI is a flagship example of sovereign tech development: harnessing local data, expertise, and infrastructure to build native large‑scale AI capabilities.
