Azim Premji’s Fund To Boost Investments In AI Ventures: Report

Bengaluru-based investment arm Premji Invest, which manages over $10 Bn for software tycoon Azim Premji, is planning to boost its bets on artificial intelligence (AI) companies.

As per Bloomberg’s report, the fund would focus on refining its proprietary AI investment tools.

Speaking with Bloomberg, TK Kurien, the managing partner and chief investment officer at Premji Invest said that the company is now developing an AI quant model for its public market investments as well. 

Kurien added that the asset manager will “invest more” in the AI space following “exponential returns”.

Premji Invest started developing AI tools three years ago and hired 14 AI engineers, the report further said, adding that at the same time, it has started backing firms venturing into the nascent technology space.

AI is helping the asset manager in examining over 10,000 companies globally across 600 parameters to pinpoint investment prospects.

Premji Invest counts Cohesity Inc, a data-management software company, Holistic AI, an enterprise software business in London, Ikigai and Pixis among its portfolio companies.

Technology and financial services will be the top sectors in which Premji Invest will be betting, as per the report. In private markets in India, the other two sectors in which the firm invests are consumer and health care. 

In the US, the investments are focused on health care and technology sectors.

Premji, the founder of Wipro, established the family office in 2006 as a perpetual investment vehicle to fund philanthropic initiatives, having donated a significant portion of his wealth to humanitarian causes in India. 

Kurien, who earlier worked with Wipro for more than 16 years building up his operational chops, now seeks investment opportunities in the US with cutting-edge technologies suitable for India. 

Premji Invest allocates its assets across private investments, publicly traded equities, and other funds, witnessing a four-fold increase in assets under management over the last eight years. In the report, Kurien highlighted that they operate as patient capital without a predefined exit timeframe.

As per Inc42’s ‘India’s Generative AI Startup Landscape, 2023’ report, the country’s GenAI market is expected to grow exponentially in the next few years, surpassing $17 Bn by 2030 from $1.1 Bn in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 48%. India’s startup ecosystem already comprises 70+ GenAI startups.