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Vivek Raghavan & Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam AI: Reforming India’s AI Landscape
In a global technology ecosystem dominated by Silicon Valley giants, two Indian entrepreneurs are quietly orchestrating a revolution from Bengaluru. Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, co-founders of Sarvam AI, launched India’s first open source foundational small language model, Sarvam 2B, with a focus on Indic languages in 2023. Their startup represents more than just another AI company; it embodies the ambitious vision of creating indigenous artificial intelligence solutions that understand and serve India’s linguistic diversity. Just as the Indian technology ecosystem was grappling with the consequences of banking on foreign LLMs, Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar founded Sarvam AI to build India’s own LLM. This entrepreneurial journey positions them at the forefront of India’s AI renaissance, challenging the narrative that cutting-edge artificial intelligence innovation must originate from Western tech hubs.
Foundations of Innovation: From Academia to Entrepreneurship
The paths that led Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar to artificial intelligence entrepreneurship were forged through rigorous academic excellence and hands-on experience with India’s digital infrastructure. Vivek holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a B. Tech. from IIT Delhi. His journey through India’s technology transformation began with pivotal roles in nation-building initiatives. Dr. Raghavan served as the Chief Product Manager at UIDAI, contributing to the Aadhaar project, and was the Chief AI Evangelist at the EkStep Foundation, building scalable digital public goods.
Dr. Pratyush Kumar is an AI and systems engineering researcher with tenure at Microsoft Research, IBM Research, and IIT Madras. His expertise in artificial intelligence was honed through years of research in multilingual learning and Indian language natural language processing. Kumar’s journey in AI began with his research at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), where he focused on developing speech recognition and translation models for Indian languages. This foundational work would later become instrumental in shaping Sarvam AI’s core mission.
Both entrepreneurs converged at AI4Bharat, an initiative of IIT Madras to build open-source language AI for Indian languages. Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar created AI models for speech recognition and translation at AI4Bharat before launching their own venture called Sarvam to offer custom-made large language models (LLMs) for India centric use cases. This experience provided them with deep insights into the challenges and opportunities in developing AI solutions tailored for India’s complex linguistic landscape.
Revolutionary Achievements in AI Development
Since its establishment, Sarvam AI has achieved remarkable milestones that position it as a formidable player in the artificial intelligence space. Sarvam has raised $53.6M in funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Peak XV Partners, with a current valuation of ₹921Cr. The company announced raising $41 million in Series A round in December 2023, led by Lightspeed and supported by Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures.
The startup’s technical achievements are equally impressive. Sarvam AI claims to have launched India’s first open source foundational small language model, Sarvam 2B, with a focus on Indic languages, trained with 4 Tn tokens and performs better than Meta’s Llama. This represents a significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence development, demonstrating that world-class AI innovation can emerge from Indian entrepreneurs and engineering talent.
Vivek Raghavan is building the open-source ecosystem for Indian AI developers which started with OpenHathi LLM, and now boasts one of India’s first foundational models. The OpenHathi series represents a comprehensive approach to democratizing AI technology, making advanced artificial intelligence capabilities accessible to developers across India. The startup announced OpenHathi v.01, the first model in the OpenHathi series, focusing on India’s unique needs, which include training AI models to support the diverse Indian languages and voice-first interfaces.
The impact of their work extends beyond technical achievements. Sarvam AI is making waves in India’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, developing large language models (LLMs) specifically designed for India’s linguistic diversity. This focus on linguistic inclusivity addresses a critical gap in the global AI landscape, where most advanced models are predominantly trained on English-language datasets.
Current Vision and Strategic Direction
Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar are positioning Sarvam AI as more than just an artificial intelligence company; they envision it as the foundation for India’s AI sovereignty. Established in July 2023, Sarvam AI was co-founded by Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar with the dire need to make generative AI accessible to everyone in India at scale. Their current projects reflect this ambitious vision of democratizing AI technology.
Sarvam AI is an innovative Indian startup focused on crafting a comprehensive “full-stack” for Generative AI model tailored to meet the needs of the Indian market. This full-stack approach represents a strategic differentiation from global AI companies that primarily focus on general-purpose models. By developing specialized solutions for Indian use cases, Raghavan and Kumar are creating sustainable competitive advantages in artificial intelligence.
The startup’s commitment to open-source development philosophy aligns with broader trends in the AI community while addressing specific needs of Indian developers and businesses. Their approach of building indigenous AI capabilities resonates with India’s growing emphasis on technological self-reliance and digital sovereignty.
Transforming India’s Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem
The entrepreneurial journey of Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar through Sarvam AI represents a paradigm shift in how artificial intelligence innovation can emerge from emerging markets. Their work demonstrates that cutting-edge AI research and development need not be confined to traditional technology centers. By focusing on India’s unique linguistic and cultural requirements, they are creating AI solutions that serve billions of users while establishing India as a credible player in the global artificial intelligence landscape. The success of Sarvam AI under their leadership signals the beginning of a new chapter in entrepreneurship and AI innovation, where local expertise and understanding drive technological breakthroughs that compete on the world stage.
