PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Pratyush Kumar

As of October 2026, Pratyush Kumar is co-founder and chief executive of Sarvam AI, a company that builds language models. He earned a doctorate in computer engineering at ETH Zurich in 2014 after studying electrical engineering at IIT Bombay. He worked at IBM Research and Microsoft Research before serving as faculty at IIT Madras from 2018 to 2021. He and Mitesh Khapra founded AI4Bharat in 2019, and he and Vivek Raghavan founded Sarvam AI in August 2023. In February 2026 the company announced and open-sourced its Sarvam 30B and Sarvam 105B language models.

Now at
Sarvam AI
Works
138
Citations
2,986
h-index
19

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2014

    A PhD at ETH Zurich

    He completes a PhD in computer engineering at ETH Zurich in 2014, after studying electrical engineering at IIT Bombay.

  2. 2015

    A research scientist at IBM

    He joins IBM Research as a research scientist in 2015 and later spends two years at Microsoft Research.

  3. 2018–2021

    Faculty at IIT Madras

    He serves as faculty at IIT Madras from 2018 to 2021, then remains associated as an adjunct faculty member.

  4. 2019

    Founding AI4Bharat

    He and Mitesh Khapra found AI4Bharat at IIT Madras in 2019.

  5. August 2023

    Founding Sarvam AI

    He and Vivek Raghavan found Sarvam AI in August 2023.

  6. December 2023

    A $41 million funding round

    The company announces a combined seed and Series A round of about $41 million in December 2023.

  7. February 2026

    Two open language models

    Sarvam AI announces and open-sources its Sarvam 30B and Sarvam 105B language models in February 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Co-founder and chief executive

    In September 2026 he is co-founder and chief executive of Sarvam AI.

Sources and credits

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  1. How two engineers built Sarvam AI from an idea to a summit showcase | Start Ups - Business Standard business-standard.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Meet the minds behind Sarvam AI: How Pratyush Kumar and Vivek Raghavan are building India’s sovereign AI stack - BusinessToday businesstoday.in. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. IIT Madras faculty launch platform to accelerate AI Innovation in India voicendata.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. ‘AI4Bharat’: A platform for research, innovation in AI launched - uLektz News | Latest Educational Events and News across the globe news.ulektz.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. About us | Sarvam AI sarvam.ai. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. Sarvam AI - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. Why Sarvam CEO believes India is set to hijack the global AI race on a budget - BusinessToday businesstoday.in. Checked 15 October 2026.