Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder of Ola, achieves another milestone as his third startup, Krutrim AI, attains unicorn status with a $50 Mn funding round led by prominent investors, including Matrix Partners India. Notably, Krutrim AI is not only India’s first AI unicorn of 2024 but also marks a significant addition to the country’s burgeoning unicorn ecosystem.
Groundbreaking Funding Round and Strategic Vision
The substantial funding injection will fuel Krutrim AI’s pursuit of innovation and global expansion, with a mission to transform the AI landscape. Bhavish Aggarwal expressed his enthusiasm, stating, “This successful funding round not only validates Krutrim’s innovative AI solutions but also reflects investors’ confidence in our ability to drive meaningful change from India for the world.”
Krutrim AI’s Unique Positioning and Achievements
Krutrim AI, incorporated in April of the previous year, proudly claims the title of the fastest Indian unicorn, although it secures the third position in Inc42’s data, following Mensa Brands and GlobalBees. In December, Aggarwal unveiled AI models that he termed “India’s first full-stack AI.” The startup has developed these models from scratch, utilizing a vast training dataset of 2 trillion tokens and unique datasets.
The family of Large Language Models (LLMs) under Krutrim includes Krutrim Base and Krutrim Pro, boasting multi-modal capabilities, extensive knowledge, and advanced technical features for inference. Krutrim AI’s models demonstrate superior performance on various global LLM evaluation benchmarks, including MMLU, HellaSwag, BBH, PIQA, and ARC.
The name “Krutrim” is derived from Sanskrit, meaning “artificial,” aligning with the startup’s focus on artificial intelligence.
Previous Funding and Upcoming Developments
Prior to this $50 Mn funding round, Krutrim AI secured $24 Mn in debt from Matrix Partners in October 2023. The startup had been in the process of securing additional funds, with an official announcement anticipated before March 2024.
Prospects of India’s Generative AI Market
As highlighted in Inc42’s ‘India’s Generative AI Startup Landscape, 2023’ report, the country’s Generative AI (GenAI) market is poised for exponential growth. Predicted to surpass $17 Bn by 2030, the market exhibits a remarkable CAGR of 48%, stemming from its $1.1 Bn valuation in 2023.
