Nvidia backs Indian startup helping companies run AI models with fewer GPUs — SkimNews
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- Simplismart raised a $14 million all-primary Series B valuing the four-year-old startup at roughly $100 million including the new money, with Nvidia joining Accel, Shastra VC and Micromax as Dallas Venture Capital led the round.
- InVideo cut its GPU serving costs 56% using Simplismart's software, according to the startup; Simplismart also works with HeyGen, Higgsfield and Ema, while Indian cloud provider Yotta runs its technology inside the Shakti Studio serverless AI inference service.
- Jain said Simplismart's annualized revenue run rate grew 14-fold over six months to an eight-figure sum — a figure based on recent customer usage rather than contracted recurring revenue, and excluding infrastructure pass-through — with more than half of revenue coming from the U.S. despite the startup having more customers in India.
- Nvidia is working with Simplismart on technical integrations including its Dynamo inference software and has introduced the startup to potential customers and partners, while Jain argues that making inference more efficient encourages wider AI adoption and makes Nvidia's hardware more attractive to buyers.
- Simplismart competes with Nvidia's own inference offerings and with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, and says it wins where customers face stringent service-level agreements and tight total-cost-of-ownership constraints rather than preset fast-or-cheap options.
- Ghatak, a former Google engineer, co-founded Simplismart with former Oracle engineer Jain in 2022; the 58-person Bengaluru team will use the round to expand its U.S. presence, grow headcount and invest further in inference software.
- The Economic Times reported Simplismart was in talks to raise $40 million to $50 million at a $300 million-$400 million valuation; Jain declined to comment and said the Series B was closed and would not be extended.
Why it matters: Nvidia is backing software that competes with its own inference offerings and cuts customers' GPU costs — InVideo reports a 56% drop — while Jain argues cheaper inference expands AI use and Nvidia's hardware demand. Simplismart's annualized revenue run rate grew 14-fold in six months to an eight-figure sum, with more than half of revenue coming from the U.S.
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