Imagine an AI not only fluent in English but also a true speaker of Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and a dozen other regional Indian languages — with the correct accents, cultural context, and everyday slang. That’s the bet being made by one of India’s most promising homegrown AI companies today.
Sarvam AI was founded in August 2023 as a Bengaluru-based, India-based full-stack sovereign AI platform. Through a sharp focus on democratising advanced AI in a way that’s accessible, affordable, and more relevant to the 1.4 billion people of India, we’re building tools that feel made for Indians—by Indians.
The Founders and the Spark
Sarvam AI was founded by two seasoned AI professionals, Dr. Vivek Raghavan and Dr. Pratyush Kumar. Vivek has vast experience with building India’s digital public infrastructure (think Aadhaar and UPI scale), while Pratyush used to run open-source AI initiatives for Indian languages at AI4Bharat, IIT Madras. Together, they walked away from cushy lives to tackle what they saw as a glaring need: that even the most sophisticated AI models don’t quite nail India’s linguistic diversity, code-mixing (the proud Indian tradition of seamlessly alternating between languages in a single conversation), regional accents, and real-world applications.
Sarvam AI kicked off 2023 with its $41 million Series A funding round in late 2023, led by marquee investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures, was one of the largest early-stage AI financing rounds to date in India.
Mission: Sovereign AI Built for India
At its heart, Sarvam AI is of the view that India should not only own but also control AI infrastructure rather than just depending on foreign models and compute. “Sovereign by design” would ensure every layer, whether foundational models or deployment, is built and run completely in India, on Indian data centres and according to Indian priorities.
The dream is for population-scale impact: AI that drives government services, enterprise workflows, education, health care, and even feature phones in the hands of millions in rural areas. The company prides itself on being “human at the core”, with forward-deployed engineers to help customers develop production-ready solutions.
Flagship Products and Technologies
Sarvam AI provides a set of full-stack AI blocks:
- Large Language Models: Sarvam 30B and the powerful Sarvam 105B (a Mixture-of-Experts model) provide sturdy reasoning and instruction following and Indian language support, along with efficiency.
- Speech Technologies:
- Saaras V3 – Streaming speech-to-text supporting all 22 scheduled Indian languages, low latency, and code-mixed speech.
- Bulbul V3 – Expressive text-to-speech with 35+ professional voices across 11 languages, capturing natural pauses, tone, and regional flavour.
- Multimodal Capabilities: Sarvam Vision for image understanding, chart reading, and document parsing; Sarvam Dub for voice dubbing.
- Conversational Agents: Samvaad powers voice calls, WhatsApp bots, and in-app experiences for tasks like appointment booking, payment reminders, and customer support.
- Enterprise & Edge Solutions: Sarvam Edge for on-device AI, private cloud/on-prem deployment options, and secure APIs for developers.
Everything is accessible via a simple dashboard, with extensive developer access and open-source contributions to power the wider ecosystem.
Recent Breakthroughs That Are Turning Heads
In February 2026, the India AI Impact Summit saw Sarvam AI make news. The company announced their 30B and 105B models, simultaneously announcing Indus – a clean AI chat app for web, iOS, and Android. Indus, powered by the 105B sovereign model, allows users to chat in text or voice and receive responses in text or natural audio. It is currently available in a limited quantity (with a possible waitlist due to high demand), but early feedback indicates that it is useful, fast, and accurate in its India focus.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai publicly praised the team’s local-language models work and said the developer energy in India was “second to none.” Deals signed with HMD (to bring AI to Nokia feature phones) and Bosch (for automotive AI) demonstrate how Sarvam AI is moving out of chatbot territory into everyday devices and industry.
The company is also one of 12 firms selected under IndiaAI Mission’s Program No. 8 – ‘Building indigenous algorithms and techniques’ – to develop foundational AI models, which are being supported by the government in a big way.
Why Sarvam AI Matters
At a time when a few global AI giants have the world at their feet, Sarvam AI is India’s effort to establish an alternative hub of technological self-sufficiency. Its models reduce reliance on foreign systems while cutting costs for Indian businesses, and it builds AI that actually gets the local context right — be it Hinglish customer queries or complex government forms in multiple scripts.
For developers and startups, it means inexpensive, high-quality APIs and open tools to build for and grow the next India. For citizens, it holds the promise of more inclusive services: voice-based banking in regional languages, AI tutors that speak as though they were your local teacher, or government helplines you can actually converse with — not just a robotic call centre.
Summary
Sarvam AI is more than a typical Indian AI startup—it’s an audacious claim that India can do frontier-class AI on its own terms. With a firm belief that AI will be the power multiplier for economic and social change in India, the company has been working on delivering intelligent systems of insight from data across an experience-first cloud, with rich AI innovation – unified in collaboration with citizens, partner technology firms, and educational organisations.
As Indus rolls out, larger and newer models continue to follow suit. One thing is certain: the future of AI in India is being hewn in Bengaluru, in Indian languages and with Indian ingenuity. So if you are a developer, a business leader (or just curious about what AI can do for India), Sarvam AI is worth keeping an eye on — and it’s definitely worth trying.
Ready to explore? Head to sarvam.ai or on the Indus app. Get empowered through AI made for you. The revolution is already here.
FAQ’s
Q1. What does Sarvam AI do?
Ans. Sarvam AI is an Indian startup company that is creating India’s indigenous AI platform. It trains state-of-the-art large language models, speech recognition, translation, and vision AI (all optimised for 22+ Indian languages, local context, and user experiences) while ensuring local needs and data privacy. From chat apps with Indus to edge AI on basic phones, it brings accessible homegrown AI to a billion Indians.
Q2. Who is the CEO of Sarvam AI?
Ans. Sarvam AI is led by Dr. Pratyush Kumar, CEO. Co-founder (with Dr. Vivek Raghavan) Anandan is leading the Bengaluru-based company working to create India’s own AI stack for Indian languages and inclusive innovation.
Q3. Is Sarvam AI API free?
Ans. No, it’s not entirely free to use the Sarvam AI API. The majority of services (including the ones for speech-to-text and translation) are based on a pay-per-use model. Sarvam-M chat LLM, however, is 100% free per token. New users receive ₹1000, absolutely free, in credits to try out all the APIs. Other features, such as Document Intelligence, are free in February 2026. Sign up at dashboard.sarvam.ai to start!
