Bangalore’s Vidhana Soudha is the assembly building of the Karnataka state government. / Photo credit: Wikimedia
Indian startups focused on artificial intelligence and smart devices have a serious new source of funding in the shape of Pi Ventures.
The homegrown VC today revealed that it has secured the final tranche of its first fund, worth a total of US$31.3 million. That’s above the US$27 million it was aiming for when the new outfit began gathering its resources at the start of 2017.
Backed by big-name India tech figures like Flipkart’s Binny Bansal as well as institutional investors from around the world, Pi Ventures plans “to invest in 18 to 20 deep tech startups in India in the next three to four years with a significant portion allocated for follow-ons,” according to a statement this morning.
Pi Ventures has already funded six Indian startups:
- SigTuple: Data-driven intelligence for healthcare
- Ten3T: Preventative healthcare using wearables
- Niramai: Breast cancer screening using a radiation-free, non-touch method
- Zenatix: Energy efficiency solutions for large-scale businesses
- CustomerSuccessBox: Helping enterprise startups grow their recurring revenue
- Locus.sh: Logistics optimization service
India is keen to boost its AI capabilities after falling behind the US and China, reports CNBC. A government-appointed task force recently published a plan to accelerate the nation’s AI sector in the next five years, including recommendations for more research and test labs, AI focusing on the finance industry, and having government departments work with the private sector so that AI can help solve real-world problems.
“The most important challenge in India is to collect, validate […] distribute AI-relevant data and making it accessible to organizations, people, and systems without compromising privacy and ethics. Data is the bedrock of AI systems and reliability of AI systems depends primarily on quality and quantity of the data,” the government report stated.
AI has the potential to add over US$950 billion – or 15 percent of India’s current gross value – by 2035, says a study from Accenture.
Converted from Indian rupees. Rate: US$1 = INR 71.92.
Editing by Judith Balea and Eileen C. Ang
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