A new shining star has emerged in India’s world of technology, named Sarvam AI. This Bengaluru-based startup is creating artificial intelligence (AI) models specifically for India, which are being prepared with our Indian languages and culture kept in mind. The new AI was started in 2023 by Dr. Vivek Raghavan and Dr. Pratik Kumar.
Both of them dream of taking AI technology to every corner of the country. This company is not only innovating in technology, but is also becoming a game-changer by adopting the linguistic diversity of India.
Sarvam aims to create an AI ecosystem for India that is completely indigenous and works according to our local needs. The company has built AI models in 10 Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Oriya.
Along with this, the company is also working on voice-based AI solutions, which are very important for a country like India, where there are still problems with education.
What is Sarvam AI after all?
Sarvam AI is an Indian startup working in the field of generative AI. Its focus is on creating AI models, keeping in mind the linguistic and cultural diversity of India. This company has introduced many great models like OpenHathi, Sarvam 2B, and Sarvam 1.
These models are capable of conversing, translating, and performing different tasks in Indian languages. For example, OpenHathi was India’s first Hindi Large Language Model (LLM), which was launched in 2023. Its performance is equivalent to GPT-3.5 in Hindi.
The biggest feature of the Indigenous AI model is that it focuses on small and efficient AI models. Their models not only run fast but also work well with fewer resources. For a country like India, where cost and lack of resources are a big challenge, this becomes very important. Apart from this, Sarvam AI promotes open-source models so that developers and businesses can use them for free.
The most important products of Sarvam AI
This new AI model has made many innovations that make it different from other companies. Some of its major products are:
- Sarvam 1: This is India’s first indigenous large language model, which can work in 11 languages (10 Indian languages and English). It is built with 2 billion parameters and performs better than models like Google’s Gemma-2 and Meta’s Llama-3. This model is fast, economical, and can work well even on small devices.
- Sarvam 2B: This is an open-source model trained on data of 4 trillion tokens. It supports 10 Indian languages and provides affordable AI solutions for businesses.
- Shuka 1.0: This is India’s first audio language model that does voice-to-text conversion in Indian languages with great accuracy. This is especially good for those who prefer to speak rather than type.
- Sarvam Agents: These are voice-based, multi-lingual agents that simplify business operations via telephone, WhatsApp, and apps. Their service starts at just Rs 1 per minute.
Why the Indigenous AI Model is Important for India
India is a country where more than 19,500 dialects and languages are spoken. In such a situation, if only English-centric AI models are made, then they cannot properly meet our local needs. Sarvam AI recognized this deficiency and created AI models specifically for Indian languages.
Their models make customer service cheaper and faster in places like banks, telecom companies, and quick commerce. Platforms like Zepto or Zomato can use Sarvam AI’s models to answer customer questions in their language.
The indigenous AI model has also worked with the Government of India. In 2025, it was selected to build the country’s first indigenous foundational AI model under the IndiaAI mission. This is a big step towards India becoming self-reliant in technology. The company has also started projects with organizations like UIDAI and NITI Aayog, which are making government services easily accessible to the people.
Achievements so far and plans
Sarvam AI has achieved many big achievements in a very short time. It raised Series A funding of $41 million, in which big investors like Lightspeed Ventures, Peak XV, and Khosla Ventures invested. The company trained its models in collaboration with big partners like NVIDIA and Yotta. Its Sarvam-1 model outperformed even big models in benchmarks like MMLU and IndicGenBench.
Going forward, Sarvam AI aims to build a complete indigenous AI stack for India. This means not just building models, but doing everything from data generation to model deployment in-house. The company believes that local AI solutions are vital to strengthening India’s digital economy.
Sarvam AI is bringing a big change to India’s AI ecosystem. Its voice-based and multi-lingual technology adapts to India’s linguistic and cultural diversity. With small and efficient models, it is making AI affordable and accessible to both businesses and common people.
By working closely with the Indian government and large organizations, it is moving rapidly towards making the country self-reliant in technology. If you also want to be a part of the future of AI, then keep an eye on this new AI model. This company is making a name for itself not only in India but all over the world.