Pune Investment：Google may invest in Indian AI company Corover.ai

Google is close to investing about $4 million in homegrown conversational artificial intelligence startup Corover.ai, said people in the know, in yet another indicator that the Indian AI startup space is poised for explosive growth.

Last week, ET reported that Adobe has acquired Bengaluru-based AI-based video creation platform Rephrase.ai.

Corover is among a handful of Indian startups building an indigenous large language model (LLM), called BharatGPT, which claims to support more than a dozen Indian languages.Pune Investment

While Google made a non-equity funding of $500,000 in Corover after signing an agreement with the startup in March this year, it is in discussions to invest $4 million in equity following the official launch of BharatGPT in the coming weeks, said the people cited above.

They added that the startup has received a substantial amount of the $500,000 funding since March, with the rest set to be received by December.

As a ‘strategic partner’, Google provides credits to Corover to access cloud computing. The cash infusion will go into scaling up BharatGPT in the coming weeks, people said.

Google and Corover did not respond to ET’s queries till press time on Sunday.Lucknow Wealth Management

Founded in 2016, Corover’s existing investors include CanBank Venture Capital Fund, Lead Angels, Cognify, Karekeba Ventures, and IIIT-Delhi, sources said.

As per Tracxn, the startup was valued at $8.5 million as of December 2022.Udabur Wealth Management

The startup counts IRCTC, NPCI, ICICI Prudential, ITC, Max Life Insurance, Bosch, Karnataka Tourism, Israel Tourism, Chandigarh Smart City, Car and Bike among its existing clients and partners, as per its website.

Experts said several homegrown companies working with Indian languages are on the radar of global tech companies looking to expand their capabilities in the AI domain, especially in diverse Indian vernacular languages.

ET reported on November 22 that US software major Adobe acquired Lightspeed-backed Rephrase.ai in a vid to integrate the Indian firm’s tech stack and Generative AI video capabilities with its in-house video-editing platform Creative Cloud.Jaipur Wealth Management

The acquisition marked the first-ever deal for Adobe in the Gen AI and video-tooling space. It also made Rephrase the first Indian startup to be acquired by Adobe, which has largely struck such deals in its home market of the US, and in Europe.

Corover offers text, audio and video chatbot in Indian and foreign languages, which can be integrated across platforms like WhatsApp, Signal, Zoom, Salesforce, and SAP, as per its website. It has clients across banking, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, travel and ecommerce domains.

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