Pi Ventures, an early-stage venture fund, has raised $8 million (Rs 65.9 crore) for its second fund from British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.

With the BII investment, pi now has over Rs 530 crore in confirmed investments for the second fund. According to a statement, the VC firm intends to complete the final close in the first quarter of CY23 in the range of Rs 565-750 crore.
The investment comes after pi Ventures announced the first closing of its second fund earlier this year, raising funds from entrepreneurs, HNIs, and family offices around the world.

The fund is supported by Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA), Accel, and entrepreneurs including Binny Bansal, Varun Alagh, Samit Shetty, Rajesh Ranavat, Vikram Kailas, Anupam Mittal, Hemendra Kothari, Hitesh Oberoi, Ullas Kamath, Deep Kalra, and senior executives from IBM, Facebook, and Google.

The fund, which focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and deeptech, expects to invest in 20-25 startups.
Apart from disruptive AI, the investment thesis will look at companies in the physical disruption space, according to the statement. This includes material science, space technology, and biotechnology, among other things. This fund will continue to focus on early-stage (seed-Series A) investments.

The first fund invested in 15 startups, including Niramai, a breast cancer screening startup; Pyxis, a marketing cloud startup; Wysa, a mental health startup; Agnikul, a spacetech startup; and Locus, a logistics-tech startup.

BII, formerly known as CDC Group, is a direct investor in India as well as an LP (Limited Partners) investor in private equity and venture capital funds.

Categories: Other News