India’s full-stack sovereign AI start-up — Sarvam — has become a unicorn, having raised $234 million in the first close of its $300 million series B round at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion.

Venture rounds often happen in stages. A first close means the company has already secured commitments from investors amounting to $234 million, even though they’re targeting $300 million in total in the round.

HCLTech and Bessemer Venture Partners were among the lead investors in the first close. Existing backers such as Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners also participated. HCLTech will invest $150 million to pick up 10.5 per cent as the lead strategic investor in this round, a statement from the company said.

The fundraising comes at a time when concerns over access to advanced foreign AI models have intensified. On June 12, Anthropic received a directive requiring it to suspend access to its flagship Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals, irrespective of whether they are located within or outside the United States. The development has renewed calls for India to accelerate the creation of sovereign frontier AI models and reduce dependence on overseas technologies.

“We are clear that research-led innovation to create AI that works at India’s scale is a very large opportunity. That means models that understand our voices, read our documents, and serve intelligence at a cost every enterprise and government can afford. Building on this template, we are innovating on a full-stack offering for enterprises to own and operate their own sovereign AI,” said Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam.

C Vijayakumar, CEO & managing director of HCLTech, said, “Our investment in Sarvam marks a significant step toward building India’s trusted and globally competitive AI ecosystem. By bringing together Sarvam’s research in AI models with HCLTech’s global presence, we are creating a differentiated full-stack AI platform for enterprises and governments, strengthening our ability to deliver secure, scalable, and responsible AI solutions.”

“Sarvam is building and deploying India’s sovereign AI platform — serving 1.4 billion citizens, mission-critical sectors and large enterprises. Pratyush and Vivek (Raghavan) have brought together the rare combination of research depth, engineering talent and institutional trust to meet India’s voice and agentic needs, and we are proud to partner with them,” said Pankaj Mitra, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners.