Ola Founder’s Krutrim Becomes India’s First AI Unicorn

Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, has achieved a remarkable feat by becoming India’s first AI unicorn. The startup, which aims to build the country’s complete AI computing stack, has raised $50 million in a funding round led by Matrix Partners India, valuing it at $1 billion.

Krutrim, which means “artificial” in Sanskrit, is developing a large language model that can understand and speak multiple Indian languages, in addition to English. The startup plans to launch a voice-enabled conversational AI assistant that can power generative AI applications for all Indian languages. It also intends to manufacture chips optimised for AI compute.

The startup is Aggarwal’s third venture, after Ola and Ola Electric, both of which are also unicorns. Ola is India’s leading ride-hailing platform, while Ola Electric is a leading electric vehicle maker. Aggarwal said that he was committed to building India’s own AI and driving meaningful change out of India for the world.

Krutrim claims to have the largest representation of Indian data used for training its large language model, which it unveiled last month. The model, called Krutrim Base, has 1.3 billion parameters and can generate text in 11 Indian languages and English. The startup also offers a more advanced version, called Krutrim Pro, with 6.5 billion parameters and enhanced capabilities.

Krutrim is currently running an early access programme for its chatbot and APIs, which will be available to consumers and developers next month. The startup said that it was the fastest to become a unicorn in India and the first Indian AI startup to do so.