Ola Krutrim's Founder: India's First Desi Speaking AI Unicorn

Ola Krutrim’s Founder: India’s First Desi Speaking AI Unicorn

Author: Dev Patel | EQMint

Company History

Ola Krutrim, often called simply Krutrim, was founded in December 2022 as a subsidiary of Ola (ANI Technologies). The company was envisioned as an AI-first venture aimed at developing India’s own large language models (LLMs), cloud infrastructure, and AI tools tailored to the country’s unique linguistic, cultural, and economic landscape.

The term “Krutrim” means “artificial” in Sanskrit, reflecting its mission to build indigenous artificial intelligence platforms. In a country of over 1.4 billion people, spread across dozens of languages and dialects, global AI tools often fall short of delivering accurate, localized, and context-aware solutions. Ola Krutrim sought to bridge this gap by creating models trained on Indian data, languages, and cultural references, thereby enabling India to have its own sovereign AI infrastructure.

In January 2024, Krutrim achieved unicorn status, becoming India’s first AI startup to cross a billion-dollar valuation. It raised USD 50 million in its Series A funding round, led by Matrix Partners India. This milestone signaled a huge validation of the vision to build homegrown AI capabilities rather than relying solely on Western technologies.

Over the past two years, Krutrim has rolled out its proprietary LLMs, introduced the Krutrim AI assistant, and launched cloud and developer platforms. These offerings are now being used in sectors such as mobility, e-commerce, fintech, education, and customer engagement. The company’s ultimate goal is to build a full-stack AI ecosystem, ranging from chips and data centers to software and applications.

Founders

Ola Krutrim was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal, the same entrepreneur who co-founded Ola Cabs and Ola Electric. Aggarwal has been at the forefront of India’s startup ecosystem for over a decade, disrupting mobility and electric vehicles.

With Ola Krutrim, Aggarwal aims to take India into the AI era, positioning the country as not just a consumer of global AI but a creator of indigenous AI systems. His belief is that AI is the next big general-purpose technology, and India needs its own infrastructure to remain competitive and protect its data sovereignty.

The leadership team at Krutrim also includes AI researchers, engineers, and product managers from premier Indian institutions and global tech companies. Together, they form the backbone of India’s first unicorn dedicated entirely to artificial intelligence.

Business Model

Ola Krutrim’s business model is based on developing AI infrastructure, products, and services tailored to Indian enterprises, developers, and consumers. The strategy can be broken down into several layers:

Large Language Models (LLMs)

Ola Krutrim has built its own family of large language models trained on Indian languages and datasets.

These models power chatbots, voice assistants, and enterprise AI solutions.

Unlike global players, Krutrim focuses on multilingual AI, aiming to support not just Hindi and English but dozens of regional languages like Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, and more.

Consumer AI Assistant

Ola Krutrim has introduced its own AI assistant, akin to ChatGPT or Google Gemini, but localized for Indian users.

It is integrated into Ola’s ecosystem (ride-hailing and EVs) and is also being rolled out as a standalone product for smartphones and desktops.

Its strength lies in voice interactions, code-switching between languages, and India-specific knowledge.

Enterprise AI Services

Ola Krutrim offers AI APIs and developer tools to businesses across industries like mobility, retail, education, fintech, and healthcare.

Services include conversational AI, natural language processing, recommendation engines, and AI-powered customer support.

Enterprises can subscribe to Krutrim’s cloud-based AI services on a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model.

Cloud & Infrastructure Layer

The company is building AI data centers and cloud infrastructure to host its models.

This gives it control over performance, scalability, and data security, while reducing reliance on foreign cloud providers.

Eventually, Krutrim also plans to develop AI chips to create a vertically integrated AI stack.

Integration with Ola Ecosystem

Ola Krutrim’s first major use case is within Ola’s own businesses:
- Ola Cabs: AI chatbots to improve driver and rider experience.
- Ola Electric: Intelligent voice assistants for EVs, predictive maintenance, and energy optimization.

By testing AI in-house at scale, Krutrim demonstrates real-world use cases before expanding into other industries.

Revenue Streams

Enterprise subscriptions to AI APIs and developer tools.

Consumer products like AI assistants with potential freemium or subscription models.

Long-term monetization from cloud infrastructure and AI chip licensing.

Current Competitors

Ola Krutrim competes in multiple layers of the AI ecosystem — from consumer assistants to enterprise AI to cloud infrastructure. Its key competitors include:

Global AI giants: OpenAI (ChatGPT), Google DeepMind / Gemini, Anthropic (Claude), and Microsoft Azure AI. These companies dominate globally but often lack Indian language and cultural training.

Indian AI startups: Sarvam AI, Neysa, and others are emerging with their own LLMs and AI services for India.

Big Tech in India: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure provide AI APIs and infrastructure to Indian enterprises, though without the same localization focus.

Vertical-specific AI firms: Smaller startups focusing on niches like healthcare AI, agritech AI, or edtech AI can overlap in specific domains.

In-house AI initiatives: Large Indian conglomerates (e.g., Reliance, TCS, Infosys) are developing AI platforms, creating potential competition.

Despite this, Krutrim’s differentiation lies in its “Made for India” positioning — multilingual support, localized datasets, and sovereign infrastructure.

Challenges & Risks

While Ola Krutrim’s rise has been impressive, it faces several challenges:

Capital intensity: Building AI infrastructure, chips, and large data centers requires billions in investment.

Talent war: Recruiting and retaining AI researchers in India is difficult due to competition from global companies.

Scaling adoption: Convincing enterprises to shift from established players like AWS or OpenAI to a relatively new platform.

Trust & reliability: Delivering consistently accurate AI outputs across multiple languages is technically complex.

Regulatory landscape: AI regulation is evolving in India; compliance and ethical use cases will be critical.

Global competition: Global AI companies are faster to innovate and have deeper pockets, putting pressure on Krutrim’s execution.

Future Outlook

Ola Krutrim is positioning itself as the national champion of AI in India. Its focus on building LLMs for Indian languages, localized AI assistants, and sovereign cloud infrastructure could give it a unique moat. If successful, Krutrim could not only dominate AI adoption within India but also export its solutions to other emerging markets facing similar linguistic and cultural challenges.

The company’s next phase will likely involve:

Expanding support for more Indian languages.

Scaling enterprise partnerships across BFSI, retail, and education.

Investing in indigenous AI chips to reduce dependence on foreign hardware.

Possibly expanding into Southeast Asia and Africa with localized AI products.

If Krutrim can execute on these ambitions, it may emerge as one of the most influential AI players outside Silicon Valley and China, anchoring India’s role in the global AI race.

References

Disclaimer: This article is based on information available from public sources. It has not been reported by EQMint journalists. EQMint has compiled and presented the content for informational purposes only and does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Readers are advised to verify details independently before relying on them.