The AI ecosystem in India is thriving with a diverse range of startups receiving significant funding over the last few years. India has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, expected to witness a year-on-year growth of 12-15%. Indian AI companies garnered $1.11 billion across 47 funding rounds in 2022, which increased 12X in 2023 and 45% of the startups that got funding were from Bengaluru.
Just in 2023, 60 startups were launched in India that are focused on building native AI solutions and most of them are using the hybrid approach of building on top of LLM models of OpenAI and LLaMA. But there are trailblazers who are disrupting the industry with innovative solutions that will unleash the next wave of AI in India and across the globe. Here are five AI Bengaluru-based startups to look out for.
Krutrim AI
Krutrim AI, referred to as India’s first full-stack AI solution, was launched by Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal. Krutrim AI has raised $24 million in debt from Matrix Partners, which is also a shareholder of Ola Electric. However, Aggarwal clarified that Krutrim is a separate entity from Ola.
With striking similarities to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Krutrim claims to outperform GPT-4 with its ability to understand over 20 languages and generate content in 10 including Marathi, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Odia, Gujarati, and Malayalam.
KOGO OS
Most popular for its AI Travel Expert, KOGO OS is disrupting the AI market with its AI operating system that is built on large action models. While most AI companies in Bengaluru have been focused on the LLM model of OpenAI, KOGO OS is revolutionary with its capacity to perform complex, real-world tasks. KOGO AI OS helps businesses create hundreds of ready-to-use AI assistants for industries like travel and mobility, retail and e-commerce, business and manufacturing, finance and banking, health and insurance, and productivity.
These assistants are like modular building blocks that can work by themselves or in a chain to execute complex tasks in dynamic environments. They are designed to understand human intent and mirror the company’s tone and voice, with in-built topical guardrails to ensure adherence to company values at all times. It is built with enterprise-grade security and continuous monitoring of AI actions. KOGO AI assistants are on their way to becoming India’s first AI Workforce that can safely and smoothly take over company functions in complex workflows.
Karya AI
Founded in 2021, this Bengaluru-based startup focuses on using AI to create employment opportunities for people in rural India. Karya AI’s app allows users to perform tasks like recording audio in their native languages, which contributes to the AI’s data.
The company is expanding its offering into various Indian languages, enriching AI databases with diverse linguistic data. While most LLMs are focused on the English language, Karya’s solution benefits non-English speakers in India, providing rural workers with employment.
Microsoft began using Karya to source local speech data for their AI products and to mitigate gender bias in AI data. Google partnered with Karya AI for speech data collection across 85 Indian districts, aiming to expand its use to all parts of India.
Haptik AI
Haptik AI provides conversational AI chatbots and virtual assistants. The company is a leader in the CX industry with its technologies being used to automate customer service and support processes, providing users with quick, accurate, and efficient assistance.
Haptik AI leverages natural language processing and machine learning to understand and respond to user inquiries in a human-like manner. With $12.2 million in funding till date, the company has been venturing into acquiring customers in the e-commerce, finance, insurance, healthcare, and other sectors.
Entropek
This Bengaluru-based company is reinventing consumer research with its innovative AI solution that can conduct qualitative and quantitative research. Founded in 2016, the startup uses its proprietary technologies—facial coding, eye tracking, and voice AI to conduct market research. With large-scale clients like P&G and Nestle to ICICI and JP Morgan, Entropik works across sectors such as consumer packaged goods (CPG), health care, media and entertainment, and finance.
Facial coding analyzes the expressions of a person using a webcam while eye tracking analyzes where the user is looking. The third is voice AI, which is used to analyze voice transcription, translation, and tonality. Put together, it can understand the sentiment and intent and even read 58 facial expressions.
AI is changing the way we work, and even the way we interact with the world. While a lot of work is being done by hundreds of businesses across the world, several home-grown startups are disrupting the market by thinking out of the box and solving unique challenges that hold the potential to change what we know about AI and its uses. Whether it is to improve productivity, conduct research, or tackle sales and operational workflows, AI holds the massive potential for businesses to grow and thrive and will be the focal point of human innovation in the years to come.
