Finnish phone maker HMD today unveiled its first smartphone, called the Vibe 2 5G, which comes pre-loaded with Indian AI company Sarvam’s Indus chatbot. Both the companies had first announced the partnership during the India AI Summit held in New Delhi in February.
The Indus app is powered by Sarvam’s locally trained 105 billion parameter model – a measure of the scale and complexity of AI – and which started at the AI summit. The app supports 22 Indic languages and mid-sentence code-switching (the ability to smoothly mix languages during conversation, such as switching between Hindi and English), which helps the assistant better understand the context of a query. Currently, the app does not support offline use and does not have any built-in functionality with the device to call the AI assistant via shortcut.
The partnership is a potential testing ground for both companies to gauge the appetite for an India-centric chatbot.
“With this partnership, the first thing we want to do is bring the Indus app to consumers,” Ravi Kunwar, HMD’s CEO and Vice President for India and APAC, told TechCrunch. “Once they start using it, we’ll move into phase two to focus on driving more grip and stickiness. Right now, by preloading the app, we want to be more accessible to users,” he said.
The Vibe 2 5G is a mid-range Android phone with a 6,000mAh battery and a price tag of ₹10,999 ($114). Kunwar added that Vibe smartphone series devices will also get the chatbot and the company is also expected to launch a Sarvam AI enabled phone in the coming months.
This phone integration may ultimately prove more important for both companies. HMD had a 4% share of India’s feature phone market in 2025, but its smartphone share was negligible — the company doesn’t even appear in the top 15, according to analyst firm IDC.
While it’s early days for Indus, the download numbers reflect that. Almost three months after its launch, the app has been downloaded over 293,000 times in India across all platforms, according to Appfigures. In comparison, ChatGPT was downloaded 43.9 million times in the country.
It’s a big gap, but the strategy behind the HMD deal may matter more than the early numbers. Bundling a peripheral AI assistant with affordable hardware—particularly feature phones—is one of the most immediate distribution plays available in a market as large and linguistically diverse as India, where English-language AI tools have limited reach. For investors and operators watching how AI adoption is developing in emerging markets, this partnership is worth watching.
Sarvam was one of India’s leading AI startups. Beyond the launch of the Indus app, the company has focused on enterprise partnerships, especially for voice-based solutions. It is on track to become one of the most funded AI startups in the country, with exhibitions suggesting a $300 million funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation is in the works.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
