Sarvam becomes India's newest AI unicorn with $234 million funding round led by HCLTech

Sarvam has raised $234 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, the company announced on Monday. The Bengaluru-based company is now India's newest AI unicorn, as governments and companies seek greater control over critical artificial intelligence technologies and computing infrastructure. $150 million of that money will come from HCLTech, the IT subsidiary of Indian conglomerate HCL Group and lead strategic investor in the round.

Bessemer Venture Partners also participated alongside existing backers Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners. Sarvam hopes to raise a total of $300 million for its Series B round. The investment comes more than two years after Sarvam raised $41 million across its seed and Series A rounds, and follows the startup's launch of its open-source models in 30-billion- and 105-billion-parameters earlier this year.

The new funding also reflects a broader push by countries and companies to develop sovereign AI capabilities amid growing concerns over access to advanced models and the computing infrastructure that powers them. Sarvam is among a handful of startups attempting to build a full-stack AI business, spanning model development, inference infrastructure, and enterprise applications. The startup says its models are designed for Indian languages and use cases, while its products are being deployed across sectors including banking, insurance, government services, and defense.

HCLTech's investment gives Sarvam a deep-pocketed strategic partner as it seeks to commercialize its technology. The plan is to combine Sarvam's AI models with HCLTech's enterprise relationships, engineering workforce, and software assets to build AI products for businesses and governments. Sarvam's investment comes as India cements its position as one of the world's most important AI markets.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have described India as their second-largest market after the U.S., driven by the country's vast base of developers, enterprises, and consumers adopting AI tools. Despite its scale as an AI consumer, India has produced few serious contenders in the race to develop frontier AI models. High computing costs and limited access to capital have made it difficult for Indian startups to compete with well-funded rivals in the U.S.

and China, leaving Sarvam among a small group of companies attempting to build homegrown foundation models. The debate over AI sovereignty gained fresh urgency last week when Anthropic disabled access to its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, after the U.S. government ordered the company to suspend their use by any foreign national, citing national security concerns.