Top tech entrepreneurs invest in pi Ventures
BENGALURU: India's top technology entrepreneurs are teaming up to back an early-stage venture fund - pi Ventures - that will invest exclusively in startups using artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet-of-things, at a time when global interest in automation and robotics gains pace and technology majors such as Google and Amazon launch a slew of futuristic initiatives.
Flipkart's Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip, Hero Corporate Services' Sunil Munjal and Info Edge's Sanjeev Bikhchandani are among those backing the fund as it raises the first $13 million from a targetted corpus of $30 million.
"Artificial intelligence and (its applications) have massive potential in very diverse areas like healthcare, supply chain, agriculture, fintech and commerce," said Bansal, who along with Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal has backed diagnostic startup SigTuple - one of the first startups to raise funding from pi Ventures.
The new fund has also received capital from the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) besides family offices from the USA, Canada, Singapore and India.
"The colour of investors will change in the final close. We will get support from larger institutional players, primarily fund-offunds, whose mandate is to invest in funds," said Manish Singhal who teamed up with Umakant Soni to launch pi Ventures in 2016 and expects to complete fund-raising by the end of this year.
"We are also looking at corporates (which aim to) invest in funds and large family offices," he said.
Pi Ventures is one of the rare early-stage funds opting to focus on this emerging deep-technology segment, whereas venture funds typically diversify their portfolios between consumer internet and software investments.
Singhal expects to back ventures that solve problems in healthcare, logistics, retail, fin-tech and enterprise sectors using AI, ML and IoT.
"The current technological disruption is being caused globally by automation led by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Industry 4.0 also depends a lot on artificial intelligence and machine learning," said Mohandas Pai, partner of Aarin Capital who is also an investor in the new fund.
"pi Ventures is the first Indian fund to focus exclusively on this new area in which India will have a strategic advantage," he said.
The Bengaluru-based fund will invest in 18-20 startups over the next three to four years. It has made a beginning by backing two healthcare startups - SigTuple and Ten3T - and one in the energy-efficiency space - Zenatix.
SigTuple, which has also raised investment from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India, is creating a cloud-based solution to detect abnormalities and trends in medical data, for blood diagnosis.
Zenatix is a data-driven energy efficiency company that uses advanced machine learning to deliver 10-30% energy efficiency for companies along with predictive insights to prevent downturn.
Ten3T helps monitor medical data, like ECG, in real time, through smart patches to enable mobile ICU for smaller hospitals.
Flipkart's Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip, Hero Corporate Services' Sunil Munjal and Info Edge's Sanjeev Bikhchandani are among those backing the fund as it raises the first $13 million from a targetted corpus of $30 million.
"Artificial intelligence and (its applications) have massive potential in very diverse areas like healthcare, supply chain, agriculture, fintech and commerce," said Bansal, who along with Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal has backed diagnostic startup SigTuple - one of the first startups to raise funding from pi Ventures. The new fund has also received capital from the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) besides family offices from the USA, Canada, Singapore and India.
"The colour of investors will change in the final close. We will get support from larger institutional players, primarily fund-offunds, whose mandate is to invest in funds," said Manish Singhal who teamed up with Umakant Soni to launch pi Ventures in 2016 and expects to complete fund-raising by the end of this year.
"We are also looking at corporates (which aim to) invest in funds and large family offices," he said.
Pi Ventures is one of the rare early-stage funds opting to focus on this emerging deep-technology segment, whereas venture funds typically diversify their portfolios between consumer internet and software investments.
Singhal expects to back ventures that solve problems in healthcare, logistics, retail, fin-tech and enterprise sectors using AI, ML and IoT.
"The current technological disruption is being caused globally by automation led by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Industry 4.0 also depends a lot on artificial intelligence and machine learning," said Mohandas Pai, partner of Aarin Capital who is also an investor in the new fund.
"pi Ventures is the first Indian fund to focus exclusively on this new area in which India will have a strategic advantage," he said.
The Bengaluru-based fund will invest in 18-20 startups over the next three to four years. It has made a beginning by backing two healthcare startups - SigTuple and Ten3T - and one in the energy-efficiency space - Zenatix.
SigTuple, which has also raised investment from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India, is creating a cloud-based solution to detect abnormalities and trends in medical data, for blood diagnosis.
Zenatix is a data-driven energy efficiency company that uses advanced machine learning to deliver 10-30% energy efficiency for companies along with predictive insights to prevent downturn.
Ten3T helps monitor medical data, like ECG, in real time, through smart patches to enable mobile ICU for smaller hospitals.
