'Building leaner, agile teams': Ola Krutrim lays off over 100 employees in 'strategic realignment'

Amid the layoffs at Ola Krutrim, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led AI startup has said that these are efforts towards building "leaner, more agile teams". Several reports today said the Bengaluru-based company has laid off more than 100 employees in another round of layoffs, particularly affecting the linguistic division of the company. The development came after Krutrim laid off some employees just last month in June 2025.

While refraining from confirming the development, the company says the transition aligns with evolving priorities. “As part of a strategic realignment and our commitment to efficient capital deployment, we are building leaner, more agile teams. This transition aligns with evolving business priorities and reflects our long-term vision to build India’s own full-stack AI platform,” a spokesperson for Krutrim told Fortune India.

When asked to confirm these developments and share what prompted this "strategic realignment", the company shared a generic response: “We urge you to refrain from publishing unverified reports that are not substantiated by accurate facts. We also request you to exercise due diligence in verifying the information before publication."

In June, Krutrim had launched an agentic AI assistant, called Kruti,an upgrade of its earlier beta version chatbot available on the Krutrim app. It claimed to have deep reasoning, web searching capabilities, and could book a cab or order a pizza, while also delivering answers in an easy-to-digest manner. The AI agent claims to understand and respond in 13 Indian languages.

The Bhavish Aggarwal’s family office-backed company had announced the launch of the Krutrim AI Lab in February this year, announcing the deployment of NVIDIA’s GB200 in partnership with the company, saying the aim was to create the largest supercomputer in India by the end of the year, supported by ₹2,000 crore in funding and a commitment of ₹10,000 crore by next year.

Currently, four companies operate under the Krutrim umbrella, all incorporated in the past two years: Krutrim Silicon Private Limited, Krutrim Data Centre Private Limited, Krutrim Cloud Private Limited, and Krutrim SI Designs Pvt. Ltd. The holding company, Krutrim AI Design LLP, is majority-owned by Bhavish Aggarwal’s family office.

As of the end of March 2024, Krutrim SI Designs had a paid-up capital of ₹306.7 crore. Its shareholders include Krutrim AI Designs LLP (owned by the BA family office), Vindhyavasini Partners (represented by Amit Anchal, former Head of Strategy at Ola), Matrix Partners India IV AIF, Matrix Partners India Investments IV, LLC, Matrix Partners India Investments IV-A LLC, and Ola Electric board members Krishnamurthy Venugopala Tenneti and Arun Sarin (through Sarin Family India). Tracxn data shows the company has raised a total of $51.1 million and claims a $1 billion valuation, giving it unicorn status.