Finnish phone maker HMD has unveiled its first smartphone, the Vibe 2 5G, integrated with Sarvam’s chatbot Indus from Indian AI company Sarvam. This partnership was initially announced at the India AI summit in New Delhi in February.
Indus utilizes Sarvam’s 105-billion-parameter AI model and was released at the summit. It supports 22 Indic languages and allows mid-sentence code-switching, enhancing contextual understanding in dialogues. Currently, the app lacks offline access and device integration to activate the AI through shortcuts.
This venture serves as a testing ground to assess demand for an India-centric chatbot.
“With this partnership, we aim to introduce the Indus app to consumers,” stated Ravi Kunwar, HMD’s CEO and Vice President for India and APAC, in a TechCrunch interview. “Following user adoption, we’ll advance to phase two to increase engagement. Our goal is to enhance accessibility by pre-loading the app,” he added.
Priced at ₹10,999 ($114), the Vibe 2 5G features a 6,000mAh battery and will include the chatbot in Vibe series devices. HMD plans to release a feature phone with Sarvam AI soon.
This feature phone integration might hold significant importance for both companies. HMD had a 4% share in India’s feature phone market in 2025, with an insignificant smartphone share, not ranking in the top 15, as per IDC.
Indus’s early adoption reflects in its download figures, counting just over 293,000 downloads in India within three months of release, compared to ChatGPT’s 43.9 million downloads.
Despite the disparity, the strategic nature of the HMD collaboration could outweigh initial figures. Pairing a regional AI assistant with cost-effective hardware, especially feature phones, offers a straightforward distribution strategy in India’s vast, linguistically varied market where English-based AI solutions are less prevalent. Observers of AI trends in emerging regions should note this partnership.
Sarvam stands out among India’s AI startups. Besides the Indus app launch, it emphasizes enterprise collaborations, particularly with voice-based solutions. Sarvam is poised to become a leading AI startup with a potential $300 million funding round valued at $1.5 billion.