HCLTech May Lead $300 Million Funding in Sarvam AI
The proposed $300 million round could value Sarvam AI at $1.5 billion and mark a rare big bet by an Indian IT services major on a domestic AI startup.
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HCL Technologies Ltd may invest about $150 million and lead a $300 million funding round in Sarvam AI, Moneycontrol reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The round is expected to include a $50 million investment from Bessemer Venture Partners, with the remaining $100 million coming from a group of investors including Nvidia, Prosperity7, Activate and Glade Brook, the report said.
Existing investors Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed and Peak XV Partners are also expected to participate in the round.
The funding is likely to value Sarvam AI at about $1.5 billion post-money, representing a sharp increase from its earlier valuation in 2023, the report said. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.
If completed, the investment would be among the largest funding rounds for an Indian startup this year and the biggest for a domestic artificial intelligence company so far.
Sarvam AI, founded in 2023, has been positioning itself within India’s efforts to build domestic AI capabilities. The company recently introduced two large language models, including a 30-billion-parameter model and a 105-billion-parameter model, both trained in India.
The startup is also part of the government-backed IndiaAI Mission, which has allocated funding to support the development of sovereign AI models. Sarvam has received a significant share of GPU subsidies under the program, including access to more than 4,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs.
The proposed investment would mark a relatively rare move by a large Indian IT services firm to back a domestic AI startup, as companies face growing pressure to invest more aggressively in AI-led capabilities.
