Ola’s ambitious AI assistant, Kruti, has gone dark across all major platforms, including the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and its own web domain. The sudden removal marks a significant setback for Krutrim, which made history in 2024 as India’s first AI unicorn.
As of this morning, users attempting to access the Krutrim website are met with a “Site Not Found” error, while those accessing it via the Ola app see a message stating the service is “under maintenance and will be back shortly.” However, the complete removal of the standalone app from mobile stores has sparked widespread concern regarding the startup’s viability.
The Factors Behind the Disappearance
While the company has not issued a formal statement, industry insiders point to a combination of technical, financial, and organizational hurdles:
- Stalled Development: Work on the next-generation model, Krutrim 3, has reportedly stalled. The model was intended to be a multi-billion parameter system trained on high-performance IndiaAI GPU clusters.
- Funding & Execution Risks: Despite raising $50 million at a $1 billion valuation early in its journey, Krutrim has struggled to secure sustained follow-on funding.
- Leadership Churn: The company has seen a “dozen” senior leaders exit over the past six months, including the heads of engineering and applied AI. This follows nearly 200 layoffs across its linguistics and model-training teams throughout 2025.
- Market Traction: Before going offline, the Kruti app had only achieved roughly 100,000 downloads on Android—a figure dwarfed by global rivals like ChatGPT and domestic competitors like Sarvam AI.
Krutrim’s Rise and Recent Friction
| Milestone | Detail | Status |
| Unicorn Status | Reached $1B valuation in Jan 2024. | Active |
| Mobile App Launch | Kruti launched for iOS/Android in May 2024. | Removed |
| Cloud Platform | Aimed to compete with AWS/Azure in India. | Inaccessible |
| Krutrim V2 | 12B parameter model supporting 10+ languages. | Functional? |
A Pattern of “Maintenance” or a Strategic Pivot?
The unavailability of Kruti mirrors the broader challenges faced by Bhavish Aggarwal’s “Ola Group” this year. Ola Electric has seen a sharp decline in market share, and internal reports suggest that Aggarwal’s aggressive “speed over quality” approach may have strained Krutrim’s technical infrastructure beyond its limits.
“Building a full-stack AI ecosystem—from chips to chatbots—in two years is a monumental task,” said a former Krutrim engineer. “When you lose your core linguistics team while trying to train an Indic LLM, the product quality inevitably suffers.”
The Road Ahead for “India’s First AI Unicorn”
The future of Krutrim now hinges on its ability to resolve its funding gap and stabilize its leadership. While the “under maintenance” message suggests a potential return, the removal from app stores often implies a deeper regulatory or technical failure that requires significant re-certification.
Meanwhile, domestic rivals like Sarvam AI and Indus are quickly filling the void, with Sarvam recently open-sourcing its 105B parameter model to gain developer favor.
