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 Rs 225 crore first fund.
Bengaluru-based venture fund plans to invest in 20 deep-tech startups over the next four years and keep aside a portion for follow-on investments. It will invest across health-tech, logistics, retail, fintech and enterprise sectors.
ALSO READ: Google’s parent co invests Rs 185 million in digital freight startup Convoy
Founded in 2016 by Singhal and Umakant Soni, it had raised Rs 40 crore from UK governments’ CDC Group Plc last month. The second tranche was closed was 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.
“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.
ALSO READ: Home interior startup Livspace raises $70 million in Series C
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.