Nvidia backs Indian AI startup Simplismart in $14 million round

Nvidia has backed Indian startup Simplismart in a $14 million all-primary Series B round, valuing the four-year-old company at about $100 million including the new funding. The startup says its software helps companies run AI models more efficiently on existing computing infrastructure, in some cases with fewer GPUs. Dallas Venture Capital led the round, with participation from Nvidia, Accel, Shastra VC and Micromax.

Funding details

Simplismart was founded in 2022 by former Oracle engineer Amritanshu Jain and former Google engineer Devansh Ghatak, who met while studying at BITS Pilani. The company now employs 58 people. Nvidia's investment comes alongside Accel, Shastra VC, Micromax and Dallas Venture Capital, which led the round.

Software and efficiency

Simplismart's software sits between AI models and the computing infrastructure they run on, automating configuration work that companies would otherwise manage themselves. It can optimize how quickly a model responds, how many requests it handles and how much computing power it consumes. The company says this helps customers get more out of their existing GPU stack.

"Nobody actually needs the fastest or the cheapest inference," Jain said. He said companies instead need to run AI models at speeds and costs that make sense for their specific applications.

Customers and traction

Simplismart says it helped AI video-generation platform InVideo cut GPU serving costs by 56%. It also works with HeyGen, Higgsfield and enterprise AI startup Ema. Indian cloud provider Yotta uses its technology to power the serverless AI inference service within its Shakti Studio platform.

The startup's annualized revenue run rate grew 14-fold over the past six months to an eight-figure sum, according to Jain. The figure is based on recent customer usage rather than contracted recurring revenue and excludes revenue passed through to infrastructure providers. More than half of Simplismart's revenue comes from the U.S., despite the startup having more customers in India.

Market and next steps

Simplismart competes in an increasingly crowded market for AI inference software, including offerings from Nvidia itself and major cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. Jain said the company tends to win where customers face stringent service-level agreements and tight total cost of ownership constraints. Unlike rivals that offer preset options for faster or cheaper inference, Simplismart aims to find a balance tailored to each customer's needs.

Alongside the investment, Nvidia has been working with Simplismart on technical integrations, including around its Dynamo inference software, Jain told TechCrunch. The collaboration involves Simplismart's engineers and Nvidia's solutions architects, and Nvidia has helped introduce the startup to potential customers and partners. Jain argued that making AI inference more efficient could ultimately benefit Nvidia by making its hardware more attractive to customers and encouraging wider adoption of AI applications.

Simplismart plans to use the new funding to expand its presence in the U.S., grow its team and invest further in developing its inference software. The funding announcement follows a report by Indian English daily The Economic Times that Simplismart was in talks to raise $40 million to $50 million at a valuation of $300 million to $400 million. Asked about the report, Jain declined to comment, saying the startup was not actively fundraising, and said the Series B was closed and would not be extended.

Sources: TechCrunch