Early-stage venture fund pi Ventures has raised $8 million (Rs 65.9 crore) from UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, British International Investment (BII), for its second fund.
With the BII investment, pi is currently tracking confirmed investments of over Rs 530 crore for the second fund. The VC firm is planning to conclude the final close in the first quarter of CY23 in the range of Rs 565-750 crore, according to a statement.
The investment comes after pi Ventures announced the first closing of its second fund at $40 million (around Rs 303.5 crore) early this year, raising funds from entrepreneurs, HNIs and family offices from across the globe. The fund is backed by Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA), Accel, entrepreneurs such as Binny Bansal, Varun Alagh, Samit Shetty, Rajesh Ranavat, Vikram Kailas, Anupam Mittal, Hemendra Kothari, Hitesh Oberoi, Ullas Kamath, Deep Kalra, senior leaders from IBM, Facebook and Google among others.
The fund - primarily an investor in artificial intelligence (AI) and deeptech - expects to invest in about 20–25 startups.
The statement noted that the investment thesis will look at companies in the physical disruption space apart from disruptive AI. This includes material science, spacetech, biotech and so on. It will continue to focus on early-stage (seed-Series A) investments via this fund.
Manav Bansal, managing director and head of India, British International Investment said “There remains a significant funding gap for early-stage technology businesses in India. Our renewed commitment to pi Ventures’ second fund addresses this gap and the startups it will back will have disproportionate impact potential.”
The first fund backed 15 startups, including breast cancer screening startup Niramai; marketing cloud startup Pyxis; mental health startup Wysa; spacetech startup Agnikul and logistics-tech startup Locus.
BII, previously known as CDC Group, is an active investor in India via direct deals as well as LP (Limited Partners) investments in private equity and venture capital funds.
