India’s place in the world of technology is about to change dramatically. The “uncanny valley” domination of Silicon Valley continues, but the emergence of Indian AI firms is a fresh wave of innovation driven by the country’s vast engineering talent pool. This emerging ecosystem is similar to the early days of Indian SaaS, when there was a boom of locally developed solutions to address regional issues despite financial constraints.
The emphasis on regional languages is one important factor. Indian entrepreneurs are responding to the expanding requirements of a heterogeneous Indian customer base by including native language support into AI models. In an effort to break into the US market, several companies, like Pepper Content and Pocket FM, are also using AI to develop use cases that cut across national borders.
However, the journey hasn’t been smooth sailing. AI startup funding in India witnessed a drastic drop in 2023, plummeting to $113.4 million from a high of $554.7 million in 2022 (Tracxn data). This pales in comparison to the explosive growth witnessed in the US, where AI startup funding skyrocketed to a staggering $16.2 billion last year. Despite the disparity, global and local investors are increasingly recognizing the potential of Indian AI. This interest stems from a desire for portfolio diversification, India’s strategic location amidst geopolitical tensions, and growing data sovereignty concerns that necessitate localized solutions.
Leading the Charge: India’s Top-Funded AI Startups
- Krutrim ($50 million funding): Led by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, Krutrim holds the distinction of being India’s first AI unicorn, valued at $1 billion despite a relatively modest funding amount. Launched in December 2023, this Bengaluru-based company is building a large language model (LLM) that caters to both Indian languages and English. Their AI chatbot, however, faced initial backlash upon release due to inaccurate results – a challenge they are actively addressing through regular updates.
- Sarvam AI ($41 million funding): Another prominent player in the LLM space for Indian languages, Sarvam AI is the brainchild of Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, both veterans of Nandan Nilekani’s IIT Madras project AI4Bharat. Established in December 2023, the Bengaluru-based startup aspires to offer comprehensive generative AI solutions, including a platform for enterprises to develop GenAI apps based on Sarvam’s LLM and contribute to open-source models and datasets. Their strategic partnership with Microsoft in February 2024 aims to bring Sarvam’s Indic voice LLM to Azure, enabling voice-based AI tools.
- Mad Street Den ($57.4 million funding): Founded by the husband-and-wife team of neuroscientist Ashwini Asokan and designer Anand Chandrasekaran, Mad Street Den is a Chennai-based computer vision startup creating AI solutions for enterprise clients. Initially focusing on the retail sector, they have since expanded their services to verticals like finance, insurance, healthcare, and logistics. Their mission extends beyond the Indian market, aiming to empower people globally as “A.I natives.”
- Wysa ($25 million funding): Addressing the growing mental health crisis, Wysa is a Bengaluru-based startup that leverages AI to provide an “emotionally intelligent” therapist chatbot. This chatbot, overseen by Wysa’s team of mental health professionals, has garnered over 6.5 million users across 95 countries and various age groups. Founded in 2016 by Jo Aggarwal after her personal battle with depression, Wysa has operations in Boston and London as well.
- Neysa Networks ($20 million funding): Led by seasoned tech entrepreneur Sharad Sanghi (founder of cloud and data company Netmagic Solutions), Neysa Networks offers a range of generative AI platforms and services to empower businesses in deploying AI and machine learning. Their solutions include Nebula, a platform for scaling AI projects using on-demand GPU infrastructure and cloud-based AI model training and inference. Additionally, Palvera provides multi-vendor and multi-input observability, allowing users to proactively identify issues with the help of a unified data lake and existing telemetry datasets. Lastly, Aegis focuses on AI/ML security.
Beyond the Frontrunners: Promising New Entrants
While the aforementioned companies occupy the top tiers, several exciting new ventures are making waves in the Indian AI landscape:Upliance AI ($5.5 million funding): This Bengaluru-based startup is revolutionizing home cooking by integrating AI into appliances, enabling users to explore over 500 new dishes at home. They are planning a fundraising round of $10-$15 million early next year to bolster their market presence.
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