Krutrim, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Ola’s founder and chairman Bhavish Aggarwal, announced on January 26, 2024 that it has raised $50 million in its first external funding round. This values the 6-month old startup at $1 billion, making Krutrim India’s first AI unicorn of 2024.
The funding round was led by Matrix Partners India, an early backer of Aggarwal’s other ventures Ola Cabs and Ola Electric. Avnish Bajaj, Managing Director at Matrix India, said the investment underscores the firm’s confidence in Aggarwal’s ability to bring cutting-edge innovation to India at scale, first with Ola and Ola Electric and now with Krutrim.
This round comes right after another Indian AI startup, 6-month old Sarvam AI, raised $41 million across seed and Series A financing, signalling the rising investor interest in India’s nascent but fast-growing AI space.
In a statement, Aggarwal said the new funds will help Krutrim expand globally, drive product innovation and accelerate its mission to reshape the AI landscape from India. Krutrim aims to build the full stack of AI technologies locally, from underlying hardware to models and applications.
Krutrim, meaning “artificial” in Sanskrit, currently offers AI models trained on one of the largest Indian language datasets. In December 2023, it launched its first suite of multilingual large language models (LLMs) also branded as Krutrim. The Krutrim LLM comes in two sizes – Krutrim Base and the more advanced Krutrim Pro, expected to launch in Q4 2024. The models were developed by teams in Bengaluru and San Francisco.
Krutrim says its AI was trained on 2 trillion tokens of Indian language data to better capture the country’s contextual nuances. It claims to outperform competitors like OpenAI’s GPT-4 in Indic language comprehension.The Krutrim model understands 22 Indian languages and can generate content in 10 languages. It is multimodal, meaning it can process and connect data across text, audio, images and video.
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At launch, Krutrim said its Pro model will have more knowledge, advanced problem solving and task execution capabilities compared to Base. It will also power a conversational AI assistant for consumers that speaks multiple Indian languages fluently.Krutrim’s models will be made available via APIs for enterprises and developers as well. Aggarwal said access will be provided on an “India-first cost structure.”
In addition, Krutrim is developing its own AI chips and data centers to reduce dependency on foreign infrastructure. It aims to build prototypes by mid-2024 and start mass production by end of 2025.To utilize its AI capabilities, Ola Group plans to deploy Krutrim across its companies, including Ola Cabs and Ola Electric, by March 2024. However, Krutrim clarified that its models are trained without using data from Ola’s businesses.
With this new funding, Krutrim aims to scale up operations and cement its position as a leading homegrown AI player able to compete globally. The company has bold plans to reshape India’s AI landscape and chart a new technology future.
Raksha, a seasoned journalist, specializes in crafting insightful narratives on blockchain and AI developments. With a keen eye for innovation, she distills complex topics into accessible stories, providing readers with a clear understanding of the dynamic intersection between these transformative technologies.
