Ola backed-Krutrim becomes India’s first AI startup to get Unicorn status with $50 million funding

Krutrim, an artificial intelligence startup founded by serial entrepreneur Bhavish Aggarwal, cofounder of Ola Electric, has achieved unicorn status, securing a remarkable $50 million in funding, with Matrix Partners India among the investors.

Notably, this accomplishment comes just a month after the introduction of a significant language model by the company. Krutrim, translating to “artificial” in Sanskrit, proudly claims the title of the first Indian AI startup to reach a billion-dollar valuation.

In a blog post, the company revealed its plans to expand beyond language models, venturing into the development of data centres. The long-term vision includes the creation of servers and supercomputers dedicated to serving the evolving needs of the AI ecosystem.

The race to build large language models in Indian languages, known as Indic LLMs, has intensified among various Indian startups and academic groups. This surge in activity follows the unveiling of OpenAI’s ChatGPT over a year ago.

Countries worldwide, including India, are actively pursuing the development of indigenous AI systems, reducing dependence on technology from major players like the US and China.

Meanwhile, in Europe, considerable investments are being directed towards France’s Mistral AI, valued at $2 billion since its establishment last year. The United Arab Emirates, not to be left behind, promotes its Falcon model, supported by an Abu Dhabi government research institute.

With a population of 1.4 billion, India has set its sights on constructing smaller, more cost-efficient AI systems. Sarvam, a generative AI startup, recently launched OpenHathi, its first open-source Hindi LLM, utilizing available open-source models.

This announcement closely followed a successful funding round that raised $41 million from investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, billionaire Vinod Khosla, and others.

Founder Bhavish Aggarwal, renowned for establishing the Indian ride-hailing startup Ola, emphasized the crucial need for India to independently develop its AI capabilities. “India has to build its own AI,” Aggarwal stated. “We are fully committed to building the country’s first complete AI computing stack.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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