India’s Sarvam launches Indus AI chat app as competition heats up

Sarvam, an emerging AI startup from India, has officially launched its Indus chat application for both web and mobile platforms. This move marks the company's entrance into a rapidly expanding market that is currently dominated by major global players such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. India is becoming a pivotal arena for the adoption of generative AI technologies. Recent remarks from OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, highlighted that ChatGPT boasts over 100 million weekly active users in the country. Additionally, Anthropic reported that India represents 5.8% of the total usage of its Claude AI, making it the second-largest market after the United States. The Indus app serves as a chat interface for Sarvam's newly launched 105-billion-parameter large language model, known as Sarvam 105B. This announcement followed the unveiling of both the 105B and a 30B model at the India AI Impact Summit held in New Delhi earlier this week. During the summit, Sarvam also discussed various enterprise initiatives, hardware plans, and collaborations with companies like HMD to integrate AI into Nokia feature phones and Bosch for automotive applications. Currently in beta, the Indus app is accessible on iOS, Android, and web platforms, allowing users to interact by typing or speaking queries. Users can log in using their phone number, Google account, or Apple ID, although the service is presently limited to Indian users only. Despite its innovative features, the app has some restrictions. Notably, users are unable to delete their chat history without removing their accounts, and the reasoning feature cannot be disabled, which may occasionally result in slower response times. Sarvam has advised users that access to the app may be limited initially as the company scales its computational capacity. “We’re rolling out Indus with a limited compute capacity, so you may encounter a waitlist at the beginning. We plan to expand access gradually,” stated Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam, on X, while also encouraging user feedback. Founded in 2023, Sarvam has successfully raised $41 million from notable investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures, as it aims to develop large language models specifically designed for the Indian market. As part of a growing cohort of Indian startups, Sarvam is striving to create local alternatives to global AI platforms, seeking to establish greater autonomy over the country’s AI infrastructure.