Krutrim has partnered with Cloudera to transform how Indian enterprises handle data and AI workloads. The collaboration announced at Evolve25 in Singapore positions India’s sovereign cloud platform to compete directly with global hyperscalers.
According to Cloudera’s official announcement, the partnership already powers large-scale analytics for Ola Group. The Cloudera-based solution will soon expand to other enterprise customers on Krutrim Cloud.
Why It Matters Now
Indian startups traditionally rely on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud for infrastructure needs. Krutrim’s partnership with Cloudera offers a localized alternative with enterprise-grade capabilities.
The platform processes large-scale datasets in real-time from multiple sources, enabling faster intelligence for businesses.
Krutrim builds vertically integrated cloud infrastructure spanning compute, storage, and data management. Their AI computing stack includes foundational models across text, voice, and video tailored to India’s diverse linguistic landscape.
“We are focused on building India’s cloud with deeply integrated capabilities across infrastructure, data, and AI better to serve the unique needs of the Indian market,” said Navendu Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Head of Business at Krutrim.
“With Cloudera on Krutrim, it will give our clients the scalability and performance to advance data lake use cases with confidence and empower businesses to create and package cost-effective solutions on India’s sovereign cloud.”
Strategic Advantage
The partnership addresses a critical market gap for Indian businesses seeking local cloud solutions. Industry observers noted that many startups have shown lukewarm responses to Krutrim’s offerings due to documentation issues and technical maturity concerns, according to Economic Times reporting.
Cloudera’s data platform and consulting services enable Krutrim to deliver AI-powered data lake solutions to businesses, startups, and researchers across India. The platform’s scalability and security features provide enterprise-grade capabilities previously available only through global providers.
“Krutrim’s vision to create a robust AI infrastructure for India aligns perfectly with Cloudera’s mission to enable trusted enterprise AI through data,” said Mayank Baid, Regional Vice President, India & South Asia at Cloudera.
“With Ola Group already running mission-critical workloads on this stack, and working with our professional services team on data quality, governance and natural language access, we’re excited about co-developing and implementing the solution framework that brings to the broader enterprise adoption in India.”
Market Impact in India
The collaboration comes as enterprises face increasing pressure to process vast amounts of data efficiently. Central data repositories called data lakes store raw information that businesses need for insights and decision-making.
Krutrim raised $50 million from Z47 Partners to achieve unicorn status in 2024. Founder Bhavish Agarwal announced Rs 2,000 crore investment in Krutrim AI labs as part of the Rs 10,000 crore total investment planned by next year.
The company launched Krutrim 1, a 7-billion-parameter model in late 2023, followed by Krutrim 2 with 12 billion parameters. Both models were open-sourced. Krutrim is currently developing Krutrim 3, which targets 700 billion parameters through a partnership with Lenovo.
What Business Leaders Should Know
This partnership reinforces Cloudera’s position as a preferred partner for data-driven transformation in India’s technology landscape. The development underscores Krutrim’s commitment to building enterprise-grade, India-first cloud infrastructure meeting high enterprise demands.
For Indian businesses considering cloud migration, the Krutrim-Cloudera solution offers data sovereignty benefits alongside enterprise scalability. Companies can access advanced analytics capabilities while keeping sensitive data within India’s regulatory framework.
The partnership enables businesses to harness data and AI for transformation, improved customer experience, and advanced data engineering at scale. Real-time processing capabilities support faster decision-making across operations.
As AI adoption accelerates across Indian enterprises, having a reliable local infrastructure becomes increasingly critical for competitive advantage. The Krutrim-Cloudera partnership provides businesses with the tools needed for effective data management and AI implementation without relying solely on foreign cloud providers.
