Premji Invest Steps Up Its AI Play, In Talks To Invest $10-$15 Mn In AI Startup Galileo

Azim Premji’s fund Premji Invest seems to be betting big on artificial intelligence (AI) companies. It is reportedly in talks to invest $10 Mn – $15 Mn in San Francisco-based AI startup Galileo. 

The investment will be a part of Galileo’s Series B funding round, Moneycontrol reported citing sources. 

Founded in 2021 by Atindriyo Sanyal, Vikram Chatterji, and Yash Sheth, Galileo develops data intelligence tools for unstructured data machine learning (ML) practitioners. It enables data scientists and engineers to make their machine-learning models more accurate. 

It combines elements from ML, software development (DevOps), and data management to make everything run more smoothly and efficiently.

Galileo raised $18 Mn in its Series A round in 2022 from investors like Battery Ventures, Walden Catalyst, and FPV Ventures, among others.

This will be Premji Invest’s fifth AI investment this year, as it looks to cash in on the global AI boom. Earlier this year, the family office invested in Hippocratic AI, Hugging Face, Canva and Poolside. 

Premji Invest was established in 2006 as a perpetual investment vehicle to fund philanthropic initiatives. It is a privately held investment firm supporting the Azim Premji Foundation. Its core investment areas include financial services, technology, consumer, healthcare, industrials, and buyouts.

Premji Invest has more than 50 companies in its portfolio, including startups like The Sleep Company, Ikigai Labs, Mintifi, SpotDraft, Lenskart, FirstCry, among others.

It also has made over 15 exits from companies such as Policybazaar, Myntra, Zuora and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, among others.

The advent of ChatGPT and its rivals over the last few years have resulted in an increasing number of companies adopting AI. To meet this demand, a number of Indian startups are also working on offering AI-based products and services to enterprises. 

On Tuesday, Inc42 reported that Stoa has become the latest startup to look to ride on the AI boom. The startup, which started by offering an alternative to traditional MBA courses, is piloting a new AI-based enterprise agent platform called Zeus.

India is currently home to over 100 generative AI startups. These startups have also attracted a lot of investor interest. The Indian AI startups have raised over $600 Mn in funding since 2019. Spearheading this transition are names like SarvamAI and Krutrim, which are focussed on building Indic LLMs. 

Earlier this year, Peak XV Partners MD Rajan Anandan said that the VC firm has over INR 16,000 Cr of dry powder and wants more Indian entrepreneurs to work on AI.