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Sarvam AI Raises $234 Million in Series B, Becomes Indias Second AI Unicorn
In a headline‑making move, Bengaluru‑based Sarvam AI announced on 15 June 2026 that it had closed the first tranche of a planned $300 million Series B, raising $234 million and pushing its post‑money valuation to $1.5 billion.
The round was led by HCLTech, which purchased a 10.46 % stake for ₹1,427.25 crore, and joined by Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing backers Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners also contributed.
Sarvam’s co‑founder Vivek Raghavan said the capital would fuel large‑scale inference, agentic‑AI development, and training of bigger language models. “Inference at scale and training larger models require significant GPU compute,” he noted. Raghavan added that a recent U.S. export‑control order blocking foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models served as a “wake‑up call” for India’s AI ecosystem.
Founded in August 2023, Sarvam has positioned itself at the heart of India’s sovereign‑AI agenda. The company delivers a full stack—from model training and inference infrastructure to frontier‑model research and enterprise, developer, and government applications. Its models, trained from scratch in India, support 22 officially recognised Indian languages and code‑mixed text. Recent releases include a 105‑billion‑parameter reasoning model and a 30‑billion‑parameter model that can run on consumer‑grade hardware. Speech, vision, and conversational AI platforms are already deployed across enterprise and government use cases, handling millions of interactions daily.
HCLTech’s chief executive C Vijayakumar said the partnership “marks a significant step toward building India’s trusted and globally competitive AI ecosystem.” He added that HCLTech will combine Sarvam’s research with its enterprise relationships, engineering capabilities, and global reach to deliver a sovereign AI platform for enterprises and governments.
Bessemer partner Pankaj Mitra emphasized that India’s AI ambitions require “much more than indigenous foundation models.” He said the country needs a full sovereign AI stack that spans infrastructure, data, applications, and intelligent systems.
Co‑founder Pratyush Kumar highlighted the company’s focus on “research‑led innovation to create AI that works at India’s scale.” He said the goal is to develop models that understand Indian voices, read local documents, and provide intelligence at a cost affordable to enterprises and governments.
The funding round follows a broader push by the Indian government to develop indigenous AI capabilities, especially after the U.S. export‑control directive that restricted access to certain advanced models. Sarvam is now one of only two Indian AI startups—alongside Krutrim—to achieve unicorn status.
With the new capital, Sarvam plans to expand its GPU compute capacity, accelerate model training, and deepen its inference services. HCLTech’s investment also provides a strategic partner that can help commercialise its technology across India’s public and private sectors.
As the Series B progresses, Sarvam will continue to develop its sovereign AI stack, aiming to deliver on‑premises deployment options that preserve data sovereignty and support multilingual accessibility. The company’s next milestones include scaling its model training infrastructure, expanding its enterprise product suite, and further integrating its AI solutions into government and industry workflows.
The round’s completion will bring Sarvam’s total funding to over $300 million, positioning it to play a larger role in India’s AI ecosystem and to respond to evolving regulatory and market demands.
The round was led by HCLTech, which purchased a 10.46 % stake for ₹1,427.25 crore, and joined by Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing backers Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners also contributed.
Sarvam’s co‑founder Vivek Raghavan said the capital would fuel large‑scale inference, agentic‑AI development, and training of bigger language models. “Inference at scale and training larger models require significant GPU compute,” he noted. Raghavan added that a recent U.S. export‑control order blocking foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models served as a “wake‑up call” for India’s AI ecosystem.
Founded in August 2023, Sarvam has positioned itself at the heart of India’s sovereign‑AI agenda. The company delivers a full stack—from model training and inference infrastructure to frontier‑model research and enterprise, developer, and government applications. Its models, trained from scratch in India, support 22 officially recognised Indian languages and code‑mixed text. Recent releases include a 105‑billion‑parameter reasoning model and a 30‑billion‑parameter model that can run on consumer‑grade hardware. Speech, vision, and conversational AI platforms are already deployed across enterprise and government use cases, handling millions of interactions daily.
HCLTech’s chief executive C Vijayakumar said the partnership “marks a significant step toward building India’s trusted and globally competitive AI ecosystem.” He added that HCLTech will combine Sarvam’s research with its enterprise relationships, engineering capabilities, and global reach to deliver a sovereign AI platform for enterprises and governments.
Bessemer partner Pankaj Mitra emphasized that India’s AI ambitions require “much more than indigenous foundation models.” He said the country needs a full sovereign AI stack that spans infrastructure, data, applications, and intelligent systems.
Co‑founder Pratyush Kumar highlighted the company’s focus on “research‑led innovation to create AI that works at India’s scale.” He said the goal is to develop models that understand Indian voices, read local documents, and provide intelligence at a cost affordable to enterprises and governments.
The funding round follows a broader push by the Indian government to develop indigenous AI capabilities, especially after the U.S. export‑control directive that restricted access to certain advanced models. Sarvam is now one of only two Indian AI startups—alongside Krutrim—to achieve unicorn status.
With the new capital, Sarvam plans to expand its GPU compute capacity, accelerate model training, and deepen its inference services. HCLTech’s investment also provides a strategic partner that can help commercialise its technology across India’s public and private sectors.
As the Series B progresses, Sarvam will continue to develop its sovereign AI stack, aiming to deliver on‑premises deployment options that preserve data sovereignty and support multilingual accessibility. The company’s next milestones include scaling its model training infrastructure, expanding its enterprise product suite, and further integrating its AI solutions into government and industry workflows.
The round’s completion will bring Sarvam’s total funding to over $300 million, positioning it to play a larger role in India’s AI ecosystem and to respond to evolving regulatory and market demands.
