Sarvam’s unicorn raise; Big exits in new IPOs

Happy Tuesday! Sarvam AI has vaulted into the unicorn club after a fresh funding round. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ Scammers chase World Cup fever
■ Insurance talent woes
■ Zetwerk's revenue climb

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Vivek Raghavan (left) and Pratyush Kumar, founders, Sarvam AI

Homegrown AI startup Sarvam has raised $234 million in a fresh round led by IT services major HCLTech.

The deal comes as the sovereign AI debate intensifies, days after the US government forced Anthropic to take its most powerful models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline and block access to foreign nationals.

Deal details:

• The funding pegs the Bengaluru-based company’s valuation at $1.5 billion.
• Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners also joined the round.
• HCLTech is putting in $150 million.
• The round is expected to close at around $300 million.
• Interestingly, existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners was missing from Sarvam’s first close.
• ET had reported in April that Glade Brook Capital, Nvidia and Lightspeed were also likely to participate.

Sarvam was last valued at $110 million in 2023 when it raised capital from Peak XV, Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed.

Background: Sarvam’s fundraise comes as India races to build domestic AI musle, with calls for sovereign AI investment growing louder after US curbs on Anthropic’s latest models.

Also Read: Anthropic ban: Sarvam AI's Pratyush Kumar warns against reliance on foreign models

Sarvam is one of a handful of Indian startups building foundational AI models in-country. In February, it rolled out its first homegrown models, Sarvam-30B and Sarvam-105B, which support 22 Indian languages.

Also Read: US ban on Anthropic's Fable 5 & Mythos 5 to put Indian IT services firms at competitive disadvantage


Manish Taneja (left) and Rahul Dash, founders, Purplle

Beauty and personal care platform Purplle has put its fundraising plans on ice after failing to agree on valuation with prospective investors.

What’s happening? ET reported in January that Purplle was in talks with investors such as KKR, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital to raise about Rs 1,800 crore at a valuation of nearly Rs 13,000 crore.

Those talks are now on hold, as Purplle believes it should command a higher valuation.

Also Read: Gourmet retail startup Foodstories raises Rs 50 crore led by Nikhil Kamath

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Investors in India’s 2025 crop of new-age IPOs have sold shares worth Rs 17,759 crore through post-lock-in block and bulk deals, on top of Rs 11,700 crore offloaded during the IPOs, an ET analysis shows.

They still hold stock worth at least Rs 1.18 lakh crore across Groww, Lenskart, Ather Energy, Meesho, Urban Company, Pine Labs, Bluestone and Wakefit.

The cash-out:

• Lenskart has delivered the biggest follow-on exit pool, with SoftBank, ADIA, Alpha Wave and KKR together selling shares worth over Rs 10,000 crore after listing.
• At Groww, Peak XV, Ribbit Capital and Y Combinator have sold more than Rs 5,500 crore worth of shares, while they and Tiger Global still hold stock valued at over Rs 51,000 crore.
• At Ather, Tiger Global and NIIF have sold about Rs 2,300 crore worth of stock since listing, while Meesho has seen a Fidelity-linked block deal of nearly Rs 1,000 crore.

The returns:

• Peak XV’s Groww stake is now worth about 97 times its disclosed cost, while Ribbit and Y Combinator are sitting on approximately 80x and 53x, respectively.
• In Meesho, Elevation Capital and Peak XV are sitting on about 54x and 38x their disclosed costs, respectively.

The data shows IPOs are increasingly becoming the first step in a longer monetisation cycle, rather than the final exit event for venture and growth funds.


Harshil Mathur (left) and Shashank Kumar, founders, Razorpay

Fintech major Razorpay has confidentially filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi and the stock exchanges, setting up one of this year’s most closely watched new-age listings.

The pre-filed DRHP, dated June 12, follows shareholder approval to raise Rs 2,700 crore in fresh equity alongside an offer-for-sale (OFS) component.

Tell me more:

• Razorpay is eyeing a $600-700 million IPO, potentially at a valuation of $5-6 billion — down from its previous $7.5 billion mark, as we reported in April.
• Backed by Y Combinator, Peak XV, Lightspeed, Tiger Global and GIC, Razorpay now joins a growing cohort of startups choosing the confidential route to market.

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Cybercriminals are zeroing in on football fans amidst the 2026 FIFA World Cup, spinning up fake ticketing sites, merch stores, streaming platforms and betting apps to hijack money and data.

By the numbers:

• Cybersecurity firm Fortinet found more than 13,000 FIFA-related web domains created since January.
• Around 1,150 of these domains, or 8.8%, were identified as outright malicious.
• Fortinet also detected over 1,700 fake social media accounts impersonating FIFA-related entities, with 90% appearing on Facebook and Instagram.
• Bengaluru-based CloudSEK uncovered a sophisticated Chinese cyber operation targeting fans across more than 13 geographies by intercepting payment details and SMS-based authentication.
• FortiGuard found over 260 FIFA employee credentials and more than 270,000 credentials linked to visitors of FIFA-related websites for sale on the dark web.

Quote, unquote: “What we’re seeing now is more sophisticated than traditional phishing,” said Ismael Valenzuela, vice president, threat research and intelligence, at Arctic Wolf. “In some cases, fake ticketing sites have been used to deploy Android malware capable of crypto mining directly on a victim’s device.”

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Talent shortage triggers AI adoption among insurers: A shortage of trained insurance professionals is pushing insurers to automate claims processing, underwriting and customer onboarding, insurers and industry experts told ET.

Zetwerk’s FY26 operating revenue rises to Rs 15,900 crore: Public markets-bound contract manufacturing startup Zetwerk’s operating income is estimated to have risen to Rs 15,900 crore in 2025-26, up from Rs 12,800 crore in the previous year, according to Crisil Ratings.

Ex-Tech Mahindra executive Rajashree R joins Kalaari Capital: Tech Mahindra’s Americas growth head and former Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) executive Rajashree R has joined early-stage technology-focused venture capital firm Kalaari Capital, which has backed startups including Dream11, Signzy, Pascal.ai and BlueStone.

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■ The US government is letting a key data center regulation expire (Wired)

■ This man with ALS is “the first power user” of a brain implant that lets him speak (MIT Technology Review)

■ Me and my exoskeleton: the rise of wearable robotics (FT)