Sarvam, an Indian sovereign AI startup, raised $234 million in the first close of its $300 million Series B round, valuing the company at $1.5 billion, according to inc42.com. HCL Technologies led the round with a $150 million investment, acquiring a 10.46% stake. Other participants included Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Peak XV Partners. The Bengaluru-based startup was founded in 2023 by Pratyush Kumar and Vivek Raghavan.
The funding round was confirmed by HCL Technologies’ filing with exchanges, which showed the acquisition of 41,421 equity shares for ₹1,427.3 crore. Sarvam plans to use the capital to advance research on next-generation AI models focused on agentic AI, coding, and cybersecurity applications. The company also aims to expand its compute infrastructure and scale AI deployments across sectors such as banking, insurance, government, and defence, per inc42.com and livemint.com.
Sarvam operates across language, speech, vision, and document AI, having launched multiple models since its inception. Its journey began in December 2023 with OpenHathi-v1, a fine-tuned Hindi model based on Meta’s Llama 2 architecture. The startup’s FY26 revenue reached ₹45.1 crore, a significant increase from ₹1.5 crore in FY25, highlighting rapid growth in India’s sovereign AI sector. The $234 million raise marks one of the largest funding rounds for an AI startup in India, according to livemint.com.
HCL Technologies’ $150 million investment represents a strategic stake in Sarvam’s development. The startup’s next funding close aims to reach $300 million total. Sarvam’s focus on sovereign AI aligns with India’s broader push for domestic AI capabilities, with the company serving critical sectors including government and defence, as detailed in HCLTech’s filings and industry reports.