The most striking thing to me about Sarvam's HQ was how run-of-the-mill it felt.
They're located in an Urban Vault building. The lift is slow. The chairs are not fancy. The coffee is meh.
And yet, the work they're doing (especially after the Fable 5 unrelease) is some of the most consequential of any AI lab in India.
Access to intelligence will likely become less egalitarian as time goes on. It will also be used as a bargaining chip. "Do this, or we'll shut off your access." Right now, America and China have the rest of the world in a stranglehold. Companies like Sarvam lower the stakes and give India sovereignty over homegrown models, while also ensuring that millions of Indians have uninterrupted access to AI models that speak their languages.
Clearly, Sarvam's backers (HCLTech, Bessemer, Khosla, and Peak XV) feel the same way.
🚨 Sarvam AI has raised $234M in the first close of their $300M Series B at a $1.5B valuation.
We visited their HQ in Indiranagar, Bengaluru for a rare behind-the-scenes look at India's newest sovereign AI unicorn.