Early-stage venture fund has raised Rs 22 crore from Belgium-based Colruyt Group’s extended IT arm, Colruyt Group India, located in Hyderabad.
The fundraising from Colruyt sets pi Ventures on track to finally close the first raise of Fund II—launched in March 2021—between Rs 675 crore and Rs 750 crore, the venture capital firm said.
Accel, Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA), Bertelsmann India Investments, and entrepreneurs and family offices of Binny Bansal, Varun Alagh, Deep Kara, Hitesh Oberoi, leaders from IBM, Facebook, Google, etc., are among the backers of the fund.
The fund aims to use the capital to make investments in startups rooted in disruptive AI and deep technology, including blockchain, biotech, space tech, and material sciences, among others.
pi Ventures has invested in seven startups via the fund so far, including , Silence Labs, , etc.
“With the association with Colruyt, we are excited about unlocking opportunities in Europe for our portfolio companies,” said Manish Singhal, Founding Partner of pi Ventures, in a statement.
pi Ventures closed its Fund I at Rs 225 crore in 2018. For Fund II, it had targeted a corpus of Rs 675 crore, including a green shoe option of Rs 740 crore.
The company has invested in successfully running startups such as Nirmai, , , and , to name a few.
