Sarvam, an Indian sovereign AI startup, has raised $234 million in the first close of its $300-million Series B round at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion.
HCLTech will invest $150 million as the lead strategic investor in this round.
Bessemer Venture Partners participated in the round alongside existing investors Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners, according to a media statement issued by the company.
Sarvam operates across the AI stack, spanning training and inference infrastructure, frontier model research, and products for enterprises, developers, and government customers.
The company said the proceeds will be used to ramp up research on its next frontier model, including agentic AI, coding, and cybersecurity applications, and to expand access to computing infrastructure as it scales deployments across key sectors.
“We are clear that research-led innovation to create AI that works at India’s scale is a very large opportunity,” said Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam.
“That means models that understand our voices, read our documents, and serve intelligence at a cost every enterprise and government can afford. Building on this template, we are innovating on a full-stack offering for enterprises to own and operate their own sovereign AI,” added Kumar.
“By bringing together Sarvam’s research in AI models with HCLTech’s global presence, we are creating a differentiated full-stack AI platform for enterprises and governments, strengthening our ability to deliver secure, scalable, and responsible AI solutions,” said C Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director of HCLTech.
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Sarvam develops AI models, infrastructure, and applications for enterprises, developers, and government agencies. The company focuses on sectors including banking, insurance, government technology, and defence, and offers models across language, speech, vision, and document-processing tasks.
“Sarvam is building and deploying India’s sovereign AI platform – serving 1.4 billion citizens, mission-critical sectors, and large enterprises,” said Pankaj Mitra, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners.
