Sarvam raises $234M Series B first close at $1.5B, becoming India's newest AI unicorn

Sarvam, a Bengaluru-based sovereign AI startup, announced on June 15, 2026 the first close of a $300M Series B at $234M raised, valuing the company at $1.5 billion post-money and making it India's newest AI unicorn. HCLTech led the round as strategic investor with a $150M commitment.

The round signals deepening corporate and investor appetite for India-built AI, the kind of full-stack effort governments increasingly want under domestic control. Bessemer Venture Partners also took part in the financing, and existing backers Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners continued their support.

Sarvam builds across the stack rather than at a single layer: training and inference infrastructure, frontier model research, and products for enterprises, developers and government, with a focus on Indian languages and use cases. The company said its technology is already deployed in banking, insurance, government services and defence, sectors where it argues the stakes of getting AI wrong are highest.

Sarvam said the new capital will fund its next frontier model, aimed at agentic AI, coding and cybersecurity, and expand its go-to-market efforts. The figures and plans are drawn from the company's own announcement.

Because this is only the first close, the round leaves room for additional commitments before the full $300M target is reached. Sarvam did not disclose a timeline for the final close or name any further investors it expects to join.