Early-stage venture firm Pi Ventures, which invests in artificial intelligence and deep tech startups, has announced the final close of its second fund with a total commitment of Rs 702 crore ($85 million), finishing above the target of Rs 565 crore. The fund is backed by multiple institutional players, including BII, Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA), Accel, Colruyt, and Premji Invest, as well as entrepreneurs and family offices.

SIDBI has also returned as a key investor in Pi Ventures’ second fund with a commitment of Rs 100 crore from the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), about 2.5 times of what the FFS had invested in the first fund. The announcement of FFS’ investment had come two weeks after the Bengaluru-based firm raised Rs 22 crore from Belgium’s Colruyt Group for the second fund. Pi Ventures announced the first close of the second round with Rs 303.5 crore ($40 million) raised from venture capital firm Accel, entrepreneurs, high-net-worth individuals, and family offices.

Pi Ventures will continue to focus on the early stages of seed, pre-Series A, and Series A investments with its latest fund. The fund will continue to focus on AI and other forms of deep tech across sectors, including blockchain, space tech, biotech, and material sciences. The fund has so far invested in seven startups, including ImmunitoAI, Ottonomy.IO, Silence Laboratories, Preimage, and Zero Cow Factory. It plans to invest in 20-25 such startups in the coming two to three years.

“India is a great place to build deep tech companies. We are privileged to have a role to play in the journey to put India on the depth map of the world,” said Manish Singhal, founding partner Pi Ventures. Established in 2016 by Singhal, Pi Ventures closed its Fund I of $30 million in 2018. The first fund backed 15 deep tech startups, including Niramai, Pixis, Wysa, Agnikul, and Locus.
The Indian government floated a draft national deep-tech startup policy proposing changes across nine themes, including access to funding, strengthening the intellectual property regime, sustaining deep tech startups, and enabling shared infrastructure and resource sharing.