The LLMs, Startups, and Founders Quietly Training to Speak in Hinglish
EduInvesting.in | May 2025
“India doesn’t need another food delivery app. We need a language model that understands ‘bhaiya, thoda kam lagao.’”
— Anonymous VC, probably
While OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google battle for LLM supremacy globally, a quieter revolution is happening in India.
Local entrepreneurs, IIT dropouts, and ex-Amazon engineers are now asking a bold question:
“Why can’t India have its own ChatGPT?”
Spoiler: It’s already happening.
Let’s look at the startups, brains, and business models powering India’s AI dreams — and which ones could become the next unicorns.
🤖 1. Sarvam AI — The Desi LLM Gladiator
| 💡 Founded | 🔁 By |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Vivek Raghavan (ex-Aadhaar) + Mukund Jha (ex-Dunzo) |
What They’re Building:
A Hindi-first LLM that understands Indian context, slang, culture, and yes — government forms.
📍 USP:
- Trained on vernacular data from Indian social networks, govt docs, newspapers
- Open-source friendly
- Working with IIT Madras + Indian AI policy groups
🧠 Why It Might Win:
The first serious player going after a “Bharat GPT” in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada — not just English-speakers in Bangalore.
🤑 Funding: ₹200 crore+ pre-Series A
🚀 EduInvestor Verdict: ✅ Track for future listing / acquisition by Reliance or HCL
📲 2. Krutrim AI — Ola Founder’s AI Revenge Arc
| 💡 Founded | 🔁 By |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola / Ola Electric) |
What They’re Building:
An India-trained foundational model and eventually — hardware too.
Yes, they’re building their own GPU stack in India.
📍 Vision: “Make AI for 1.4 billion Indians” — including voice AI, support chatbots, and factory automation.
🧠 Why It Might Win:
- Bhavish has a history of doing the impossible (and also the unstable)
- Government support for local AI
- First startup in India to launch its own foundational LLM in under a year
🤑 Funding: Backed by SoftBank & Temasek
🚀 EduInvestor Verdict: ⚠️ High vision, high chaos — but a serious unicorn contender
🛍️ 3. Gan.ai — Making Your AI Ads Speak Bhojpuri
| 💡 Founded | 🔁 By |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Suvrat Bhooshan (ex-Facebook AI) |
What They Do:
Real-time AI video personalization for brands — in any Indian language or accent.
📍 You record a single video, and
