pi Ventures Bags INR 22 Cr For Second Fund, To Invest In Early-Stage Deeptech Startups

Venture capital firm pi Ventures, which is focused on early-stage startups, has raised INR 22 Cr ($2.6 Mn) from Colruyt Group India, the Hyderabad-based IT arm of Belgian retail giant, for its second fund. 

The VC firm expects to close the second fund later this year in the range of INR 675 Cr to INR 750 Cr. The fund will invest in early-stage deeptech startups across sectors such as blockchain, spacetech, biotech, among others. 

The VC firm also plans to leverage the partnership to ‘unlock’ opportunities for its portfolio companies in Europe. 

“We are delighted to have the support from Colruyt… With the association with Colruyt, we are excited about unlocking opportunities in Europe for our portfolio companies,” pi Ventures founding partner Manish Singhal said.

Commenting on the fundraise, Colruyt Group India MD Hari Subramanian said, “…Our association with pi ventures is most opportune as we strongly believe in the digital possibilities where we ourselves are the biggest consumer of tech. We are excited to partner with Pi ventures and their portfolio companies and to leverage our mutual capabilities to contribute actively in the digital evolution.”

The announcement comes more than a year after pi Ventures announced the first close of its second fund at INR 303.5 Cr in January last year. The Indian venture fund also raised $8 Mn from UK’s development finance institution British International Investment (BII) in November 2022.

The fund is backed by Nippon India Digital Innovation fund, Accel, as well as angel investors such as Binny Bansal, Hemendra Kothari, Varun Alagh, among others. 

So far, the second fund has invested in seven startups, including Ottonomy, ImmunitoAI, and Silence Laboratories. Besides, the fund plans to invest in 20-25 startups in the next two to three years.

Founded in 2016 by Singhal, pi Ventures largely invests in early-stage deeptech startups in the domain of emerging technologies. The VC firm closed its first fund at INR 225 Cr in 2018 and backed 15 deeptech startups, including spacetech startup AgniKul, cloud marketing platform Pixis, and mental health app Wysa. 

The ongoing second fund was launched with a base target corpus of INR 675 Cr in March 2021. 

On the other hand, Colruyt Group India develops software solutions ranging from maintaining existing IT systems to building products on emerging technologies.

Overall, 2022 proved to be a good year for deeptech startups even as funding plunged across most sectors. Despite market volatility and investors tightening their purse strings, deeptech startups raised $1.5 Bn in funding in 2022, more than double of $451 Mn in 2021, as per Inc42 data.

Earlier this month, deeptech startup Optimized Electrotech bagged INR 20 Cr in funding while IoT startup Intangles Lab raised $10 Mn in Series A round from Baring Private Equity Partners India.