SEBI gives Permission to Pi Ventures to launch its Second Fund
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has given Pi Ventures permission to launch its second fund, with a target corpus of Rs 565 crore. A greenshoe choice of Rs 185 crore will also be available in its Fund II.
Pi Ventures founded in 2016 is a venture capital company headquartered in India, invests in startups. The company invests in companies that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things to solve real-world problems.
The second fund will be 2-3 times bigger than the first, which closed in 2017-18 with a Rs 225 crore corpus.
Pi Ventures stated that Fund II will be closed this fiscal year.
The fund has sparked the attention of domestic family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and entrepreneurs, according to the statement.
The firm stated that it will continue to invest in early-stage companies (seed, pre-Series A, and Series A) and will expand its scope beyond digital deep tech startups to include space technology, material sciences, biotech, and life sciences. It plans to back 25 startups through the fund.
“So, the stage remains the same and the entry cheque size will also remain the same. In Fund I, we are going to back 14 companies, and in Fund II we’re likely to back 25 companies, even though the new fund is almost three times in size,” says Manish Singhal, co-founder and managing partner at Pi Ventures.
“This will allow us to go deeper in companies and do follow-ups at least three times and with larger cheques,” Singhal added.
In its first engagement, Pi Ventures invests between $500,000 and $1 million in startups, with follow-on pre-Series A or Series A rounds potentially reaching $2 million.
Pi has invested in Niramai, a company that develops AI-based breast cancer screening technologies, Locus, a logistics planning and optimization software provider, and Agnikul, a space technology startup that has designed and 3D-printed a rocket engine.
“The domestic capital scene is actually better than last time when I was fundraising. We have seen a good amount of traction within India to back funds like us and other funds like us in the ecosystem,” Singhal said.
Pi Ventures' Limited Partners in Fund I include CDC UK, IFC World Bank, SIDBI, Sunil Kant Munjal's family office, Electronic Development Fund, Hero Electronix's corporate financing arm, In Colour Capital, Accel, and entrepreneurs including Binny Bansal, Bhupen Shah, Raghuveer Tarra, and Ullas Kamath.
According to Nasscom, the IT industry body, more than 2,100 startups used deep tech in 2020, up from 1,900 in 2019.
With more investors coming in, Nasscom expects the base of deep tech startups to expand by 40-45 percent in 2021, with more than 14 percent of startup investments already heading into deep tech projects in 2020.
“I firmly believe that in the next 10-15 years, India can become a deep tech nation and we at Pi will do our bit to put India on the deep tech innovation map of the world,” Singhal said.
Pi Ventures founded in 2016 is a venture capital company headquartered in India, invests in startups. The company invests in companies that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things to solve real-world problems.
The second fund will be 2-3 times bigger than the first, which closed in 2017-18 with a Rs 225 crore corpus.
Pi Ventures stated that Fund II will be closed this fiscal year.
The fund has sparked the attention of domestic family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and entrepreneurs, according to the statement.
The firm stated that it will continue to invest in early-stage companies (seed, pre-Series A, and Series A) and will expand its scope beyond digital deep tech startups to include space technology, material sciences, biotech, and life sciences. It plans to back 25 startups through the fund.
“So, the stage remains the same and the entry cheque size will also remain the same. In Fund I, we are going to back 14 companies, and in Fund II we’re likely to back 25 companies, even though the new fund is almost three times in size,” says Manish Singhal, co-founder and managing partner at Pi Ventures.
“This will allow us to go deeper in companies and do follow-ups at least three times and with larger cheques,” Singhal added.
In its first engagement, Pi Ventures invests between $500,000 and $1 million in startups, with follow-on pre-Series A or Series A rounds potentially reaching $2 million.
Pi has invested in Niramai, a company that develops AI-based breast cancer screening technologies, Locus, a logistics planning and optimization software provider, and Agnikul, a space technology startup that has designed and 3D-printed a rocket engine.
“The domestic capital scene is actually better than last time when I was fundraising. We have seen a good amount of traction within India to back funds like us and other funds like us in the ecosystem,” Singhal said.
Pi Ventures' Limited Partners in Fund I include CDC UK, IFC World Bank, SIDBI, Sunil Kant Munjal's family office, Electronic Development Fund, Hero Electronix's corporate financing arm, In Colour Capital, Accel, and entrepreneurs including Binny Bansal, Bhupen Shah, Raghuveer Tarra, and Ullas Kamath.
According to Nasscom, the IT industry body, more than 2,100 startups used deep tech in 2020, up from 1,900 in 2019.
With more investors coming in, Nasscom expects the base of deep tech startups to expand by 40-45 percent in 2021, with more than 14 percent of startup investments already heading into deep tech projects in 2020.
“I firmly believe that in the next 10-15 years, India can become a deep tech nation and we at Pi will do our bit to put India on the deep tech innovation map of the world,” Singhal said.
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