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

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 key battleground for generative AI adoption. Recently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said ChatGPT has more than 100 million weekly active users in India, while Anthropic said India accounts for 5.8% of total Claude usage, second only to the United States.

Indus serves as a chat interface for the 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 its corporate 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.

The Indus app, currently available in beta on iOS, Android, and web, allows users to type or speak questions and receive responses in text and audio. Users can log in using their phone number, Google account, or Apple ID, but the service appears to be limited to India for now.

The app currently has some limitations. Users can’t delete their chat history without deleting their account, and there’s no option to turn off the app’s inference feature, which can slow response times. Sarvam also warned that access may be limited as computing capacity is gradually expanded.

“We are rolling out Indus gradually with limited compute capacity, so you may be on a waiting list initially. We will expand access over time,” Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar wrote for X, adding that the company is seeking feedback from users.

Founded in 2023, Sarvam has raised $41 million to date from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures as it builds a large-scale language model for India.

Sarvam is one of a small but growing group of Indian startups seeking to build domestic alternatives to global artificial intelligence platforms as India seeks greater control over its AI infrastructure.