Early-stage venture capital fund pi Ventures, on Thursday marked the final close of its second fund with a total commitment of Rs 702 crore (about $85 million), closing above its base target of Rs 565 crore (around $68 million).
Pi Ventures, which focuses on investments in artificial intelligence and deeptech startups, has raised capital from British International Investment (BII), Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA), Accel, Colruyt, and PremjiInvest for the second fund.
Government-backed Small Industries Development Bank of India returned as a key investor in pi’s latest vehicle with a 2.5x higher (compared to first fund) investment commitment of Rs 100 crore from its Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS).
The fund is also backed by the family offices of Binny Bansal, Varun Alagh, Samit Shetty, Rajesh Ranavat, Anupam Mittal, Hemendra Kothari, Hitesh Oberoi, Ullas Kamath, and Deep Kalra. Senior leaders from IBM, Facebook and Google, among others, have also invested in the vehicle.
The second vehicle will invest in startups focused on disruptive AI and other forms of deeptech across sectors including, but not limited to spacetech, biotech, blockchain and material science among others, pi Ventures said in a release. The fund is targeting to invest in 20-25 such startups in the coming two to three years.
The VC firm will continue to invest in the early stages, including seed, pre-Series A, and Series A. To date, it has invested in seven startups - ImmunitoAI, Ottonomy.IO, Silence Laboratories, Preimage, Zero Cow Factory and two other ventures.
Founded in 2016 by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, pi Ventures closed its fund I of Rs 225 Cr ($30 million) in 2018. The first fund exceeded its target and was oversubscribed and has backed 15 deeptech startups including Niramai, Pixis, Wysa, Agnikul, and Locus to name a few.
Soni moved out of pi Ventures in 2020 to start the government-backed research and innovation platform ArtPark. He has also launched a $100 million ART Venture Fund in March 2023.
To be sure, pi has been a backer of companies including Locus, Zero Cow Factory, Ai Palette, immunitoAI, Ottonomy and LimeChat, among others.
