CDC Group UK backs pi Ventures with $6 M
The UK Government's development finance institution CDC Group plc on Tuesday announced an investment of $6 million in pi Ventures, India’s first Applied Artificial Intelligence and IoT focused early stage venture fund.
The fund will be used to invest in startups with deep tech capabilities that can facilitate lasting change in businesses and lives.
CDC Group plc is a UK development finance institution owned by the UK Government. CDC holds net assets of £5.1 billion.
CDC Group plc aims to grow businesses in underdeveloped African and South Asian markets to create more jobs. Its focal sectors include financial services, infrastructure, health, manufacturing, food and agriculture, construction and real estate, and education. The 70-year old group has been investing in India for over 30 years and has already made 595 investments across sectors.
piVentures is India’s first applied Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and IoT focused early stage venture fund, founded by Manish Singhal (Ex Co-founder & CEO, LetsVenture and prominent angel investor) and Umakant Soni (Ex Director India, Science Inc & Co-founder AI BOT company). It has interests in healthcare, logistics, retail, fintech, and enterprise sectors.
pi Ventures announced its second close in January this year at $25 million and the fund is expected to announce its final close shortly. Key contributors include the Chairman of Hero Enterprise, Sunil Kant Munjal, Electronic Development Fund (managed by Canbank Ventures), SIDBI, prominent family offices from the US, Canada, Singapore & India and leading entrepreneurs like Mohandas Pai, Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra, Sanjeev Bikchandani and Bhupen Shah among others. The fund is co-sponsored by In Color Capital of Canada.
pi Ventures has announced six investments so far - SigTuple (revolutionising global healthcare space through data driven intelligence),NIRAMAI (non-invasive, non-touch, non-radiation approach to detect breast cancer), ten3T (medical grade wearable device), Zenatix (data-driven energy efficiency company acquired by Hero Electronix), CustomerSuccessBox (customer success platform which helps B2B SaaS companies reduce, churn and grow their recurring revenue by applying AI and ML), and Locus.sh (logistics optimisation platform).
