Sarvam, an Indian AI startup focused on building models for local languages and users, on Friday launched its Indus Chat app for web and mobile users, entering a fast-growing market dominated by global players including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
The launch comes as India becomes a major battleground for generic AI adoption. Recently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said ChatGate has more than 100 million weekly active users in India, while Anthropic said India has 5.8% of total cloud usage, second only to the US.
Indus serves as a chat interface for its newly announced Sarvam 105B model, the company’s 105-billion-parameter large language model. The launch of the app comes two days after Bengaluru-based Sarvam unveiled its 105B and 30B models at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi earlier this week. At the summit, the startup also outlined enterprise initiatives and hardware plans and announced partnerships with companies including HMD to bring AI to Nokia feature phones and Bosch for AI-enabled automotive applications.
Currently available in beta on iOS, Android, and the web, the Indus app allows users to type or speak questions and receive responses in text and audio. Users can sign in using their phone number, Google or Microsoft account, or Apple ID, although the service appears to be limited to India for now.
The app currently comes with some limitations. Users can’t delete their chat history without deleting their account, and there’s no option to turn off the app’s reasoning feature, which can sometimes slow down response times. Sarvam also warned that access could be restricted as it gradually expands its compute capacity.
“We’re slowly launching Indus on limited compute capacity, so you can get on the waitlist first. We’ll expand access over time,” Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar wrote on X. He said the company is seeking feedback from users.
Founded in 2023, Sarvam has so far raised $41 million from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures, as it builds a large language model tailored for India.
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Sarvam is one of a small but growing group of Indian startups attempting to create domestic alternatives to global artificial intelligence platforms as India seeks greater control over its AI infrastructure.
