Mumbai: Early-stage venture capital fund pi Ventures, that invests in deep tech focused startups has raised ₹702 crore ($85 million) towards the final close of its second fund.
The company exercised the green shoe option by raising ₹137 crore more than the base target of ₹565 crore.
The fund is backed by multiple institutional players such as BII, Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA), Accel, Colruyt, Premji Invest and entrepreneurs and family offices such as Binny Bansal, Varun Alagh, Samit Shetty, Rajesh Ranavat, Anupam Mittal, Hemendra Kothari, Hitesh Oberoi, Ullas Kamath, Deep Kalra, senior leaders from IBM, Facebook and Google among others. SIDBI has also returned as a key investor in pi Ventures’ second fund with a commitment of ₹100 crore from the Fund of Funds for Startups managed by SIDBI, the firm said in a release.
The fund will invest in start-ups focused on disruptive AI and other forms of deep tech across sectors including, but not limited to Spacetech, Biotech, Blockchain and Material Science among others. pi Ventures will continue to focus on early stage (seed/ pre-Series A/Series A) investments via this fund and so far has invested in seven startups – ImmunitoAI, Ottonomy.IO, Silence Laboratories, Preimage, Zero Cow Factory and two other ventures.
The fund plans to invest in 20-25 such startups in the coming two to three years.
Established in 2016 by Manish Singhal, pi Ventures closed its Fund I of ₹225 crore ($30 million) in 2018. Its portfolio from fund I includes Niramai, Pixis, Wysa, Agnikul, Locus among others.
“The new fund will enable us to back bold entrepreneurs solving global fundamental problems using innovative technology. India is a great place to build deeptech companies. We are privileged to have a role to play in the journey to put India on the deeptech map of the world.” said Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
Updated: 03 Aug 2023, 10:30 AM IST