ARTPARK, a nonprofit that supports technology-driven solutions for social problems, is preparing to launch a $100 million venture capital fund for Indian robotics and artificial intelligence startups.

It will be the country's largest venture fund, supporting the country's AI and robotics sector, where funding is still scarce.

ARTPARK is a collaboration between IISc and AI Foundry to help translate cutting-edge AI and robotics research into solutions with a triple impact. ARTPARK's vision is to create a world with inclusive and equitable access to AI through open tools, databanks, standards, intellectual property, technologies, and companies, while also developing AI for the next 6 billion people.

ARTPARK (AI and Robotics Technology Park) in Bengaluru collaborates closely with universities and researchers to develop cutting-edge technology solutions to real-world problems unique to India. Its goal is to assist talented individuals and researchers in establishing businesses and developing products.

“We have the university ecosystem that produces world-class talents. Connecting them to an institution like ARTPARK will help them to work on their ideas, use our resources and scale up solutions,” says, ARTPARK’s CEO Umakant Soni. “We are launching this $100 million fund to help such companies.”
He said the fund could potentially address the existing gap in financing deep tech firms. “VC funds in India expect companies to show value in terms of revenue. But in reality, revenue is only a lagging indicator, not a leading indicator,” he said.

The soon-to-be-launched VC fund will focus on companies and startups that have a risk appetite. “ARTPARK is a place where people come to take risks. The institution will provide an ecosystem, talent and funding where innovative minds can take bold risks and develop tech solutions in strategic areas,” Soni said.

ARTPARK was founded last year at the Indian Institute of Science with support from AI Foundry, another section 8 company, in a public-private partnership with a $32 million seed grant from the Department of Science and Technology and the Karnataka government.

The organisation intends to seed and support one-of-a-kind companies in the AI and robotics space that can have a visible societal impact in healthcare, education, infrastructure, agriculture, and other areas.

The technology innovation park is modelled after the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the United States, which was instrumental in the formation of Silicon Valley.

“We want to take technology moonshots and create a sustainable ecosystem that can come up with some remarkable results in the next 10 years,” Soni said.
According to him, the VC fund aligns with ARTPARK's economic model, in which the organisation will become self-sufficient after the government funding ends in five years. “The organisation will also hold stake in companies similar to SRI,” he said.

Soni is also a founding partner at pi Ventures, one of India's first focused deep-tech funds with a $30 million fund corpus.