June 15 (Reuters) - India's HCLTech said on Monday it will acquire a 10.5% stake in domestic generative AI startup Sarvam AI for 14.27 billion rupees ($150.7 million) in cash, leading the firm's Series B round as a strategic investor.
Sarvam was valued at $1.5 billion in the round, which raised $234 million in its first close out of a targeted $300 million, the startup said.
• HCLTech said it will acquire 41,421 equity shares in the startup and fund its research and development aimed at training next-generation models for agentic AI, coding and cybersecurity use cases.
• The investment will allow the Indian IT services company to develop specific language models and AI solutions for its global client base, and accelerate the development of sovereign AI solutions for governments and regulated industries, HCLTech added.
• The round was co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with continued participation from existing investors Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners, Sarvam said.
• In 2024, Microsoft partnered with the Indian startup to support voice-based generative AI applications, without disclosing financial details.
($1 = 94.7100 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
