New Delhi: Early-stage venture fund pi Ventures, which invests in artificial intelligence- and internet of things-based (IoT) startups, has raised the final tranche of its ₹225 crore first fund, which will invest in deep-tech startups over the next four years. Bengaluru-based pi Ventures raised ₹40 crore from UK governments’ CDC Group Plc last month.
It had marked the second close in January, after raising money from Hero Enterprise chairman Sunil Kant Munjal, Electronic Development Fund (managed by Canbank Ventures) and the corporate financing arm of Hero Electronix, besides other high net-worth investors.
The fund plans to invest in 18-20 deep-tech startups, and keep aside a significant portion for follow-on investments. It will invest across health-tech, logistics, retail, fintech and enterprise sectors.
“We are thankful for the support from like-minded individuals and partners who believe in our investment thesis of backing innovation and disruption that solves real-world problems through applied AI,” said Manish Singhal, founding partner, pi Ventures, in a statement.
pi Ventures has made six investments so far, including in software as a service (SaaS) startup CustomerSuccessBox, logistics company Locus, health-tech firm SigTuple and NIRMAI, and medical wearable device firm ten3T, among others.
The VC firm was founded in 2016 by Singhal and Umakant Soni.
Abishek Surendran joined in 2017 as a partner, while Shamik Sharma, the former chief product and technology officer at Myntra, also came in as a venture partner in the fund.
The fund is co-sponsored by In Color Capital of Canada and backed by Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi), Accel Partners, IFC, prominent angel investor T.V. Mohandas Pai, and entrepreneurs such as Flipkart Group’s Binny Bansal, MakeMyTrip’s Deep Kalra, Bhupen Shah and Sanjeev Bikhchandani.
“India’s artificial intelligence eco-system is at an interesting intersection of data, talent and market need. We are very excited to have an opportunity to back startups which are creating global solutions from India,” Singhal said.