Ola founder’s AI startup becomes unicorn in $50M funding | TechCrunch

Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, said it has raised a funding round that values it at $1 billion. The startup, founded last year, is the fastest to become a unicorn in India, it claimed in a press statement.

Matrix Partners India, which has also backed Aggarwal’s other two startups — ride-hailing firm Ola and EV startup Ola Electric, led the $50 million “first round” in Krutrim, it said Friday.

Krutrim is building a large language model that has been trained on local Indian languages in addition to English.

“India has to build its own AI, and at कृत्रिम, we are fully committed towards building the country’s first complete AI computing stack,” Aggarwal said in a statement.

“We are thrilled to announce the successful closure of our first funding round, which not only validates the potential of कृत्रिम ’s innovative AI solutions but also underscores the confidence investors have in our ability to drive meaningful change out of India for the world.”

More to follow.