Sarvam, an Indian AI startup specializing in developing models for local languages and users, launched its Indus chat app for web and mobile on Friday, stepping into a market led by global entities such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
This launch occurs as India emerges as a significant arena for generative AI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently noted that ChatGPT serves over 100 million weekly active users in India. Likewise, Anthropic highlighted that India represents 5.8% of its total Claude usage, ranking second after the U.S.
Indus acts as a chat interface for Sarvam’s recently introduced Sarvam 105B model, a 105-billion-parameter large language model. This release follows the unveiling of Sarvam’s 105B and 30B models at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi earlier in the week, where the startup also discussed enterprise initiatives, hardware plans, and partnerships with companies such as HMD for AI integration in Nokia feature phones and Bosch for AI-driven automotive applications.
Currently in beta on iOS, Android, and the web, the Indus app enables users to input or vocalize queries and receive text and audio responses. Users can sign in using their phone number, Google account, or Apple ID, although the service appears exclusive to India at the moment.
The app has limitations; users cannot delete chat histories without removing their accounts, and there’s no option to disable the reasoning feature, which might delay response times. Sarvam has cautioned users that access could be limited as they scale up their compute capacity.
“We’re gradually rolling out Indus on limited compute capacity, so you may hit a waitlist at first. We will expand access over time,” Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar wrote on X, also asking for user feedback.
Founded in 2023, Sarvam has raised $41 million so far from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures, aiming to create large language models tailored to India.
Sarvam is among the budding number of Indian startups working to create local alternatives to international AI platforms, as India endeavors to enhance its control over AI infrastructure.