India's Pi Ventures closes second fund with $85m

The initial target was INR 5.6bn with a greenshoe option of INR 1.8bn. A first close of INR 3bn came in January 2022. Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) was described as a key investor, having put in INR 1bn.

LPs include British International Investment (BII), fund-of-funds Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF, Accel Partners, Premji Invest, and Belgium’s Colruyt Group. They were joined by several entrepreneurs and family offices, including professionals from the likes of IBM, Facebook, Google, and Flipkart.

Its predecessor vehicle closed on INR 2.2bn in 2018 with commitments from SIDBI, BII, Accel, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Canbank Venture Capital Fund, In Colour Capital, and Hero Electronix were also LPs in Fund I.

Pi was set up by Manish Singhal (pictured) in 2016, positioning itself as India’s first early-stage fund focused entirely on AI and machine learning. The idea is that India benefits from the combination of a strong local AI talent base and outdated infrastructure that could provide an early adoption environment for various innovations.

The first fund backed 15 start-ups including cancer screening player Niramai, mental health chatbot Wysa, and space tech supplier Agnikul. It was also an early investor in Pixis, a sales and branding-focused provider that raised a USD 100m round last year featuring Premji.

The new fund will back 20-25 start-ups over the next three years, participating in seed through Series A stages. Space, biotech, blockchain, and materials science are areas of interest. The aim is to back companies that are solving global problems. A minority of investees – such as US-based Pixis – are headquartered overseas.

There have been seven investments from the new fund to date. They include 3D imaging provider Preimage, antibodies discovery start-up ImmunitoAI, and animal-free milk producer Zero Cow Factory. There is also US-based food delivery robot maker Ottonomy.IO and Singapore-based web3 cybersecurity player Silence Laboratories.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• India
• British International Investment (BII)
• Accel Partners
• Premji Invest
• artificial intelligence
• deep-tech