Our Vision
We find, fund and support the best teams who are using Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Internet of Things to solve real world problems for next 6bn.
Connect is the 7th sense
Big wave is here...
By 2020, 25 - 50 billion connected devices will store so much about us and our world to power seamless, almost sensory actions. This will lead to rewiring of products, processes and eventually entire industries, catalyzing trillions of dollars worth of unseen economic value. We will invest in such possibilities..
India is innovating for next 6bn
A country and startup ecosystem at an inflection...
India is changing fast. Change leads to disruption, which in turn leads to new ideas and innovation. By 2050, India will be second largest economy after China. The combination of a large & growing self-contained market, a second-to-none talent pool, and an enormous amount of data has created ripe conditions for germination of global companies.
We are entrepreneur first
We are hungry and we love if you are hungry too..
The true north of pi Ventures is a relentless focus on entrepreneurs. We believe that irrational ideas have the capability to change the world, provided they are backed by entrepreneurs with stellar problem-solving skills, and patient passion, refusing to give up against all odds. We have been entrepreneurs too, so we know the view from the trenches. We will support such dogged entrepreneurs with funding, talent and right ecosystem to help them succeed faster and better.
Investment Thesis
We are early stage investors focusing on disruptive ventures, solving real world problems, that can turn into category leaders through Applied AI
Exploiting Data Growth
50x growth in Data
India is rapidly adopting smartphones, there would be close to 430 Million of them by 2019. India surpassed US in number of internet users in December 2015, majority of them through smartphones. Smartphones generate 4x data as compared to web; a connected devices 16x, as such, most of the business and personal workflows in India are getting or going to get impacted by data very rapidly.
Leveraging Applied AI to differentiate
Creating new category leaders
We are looking at companies that are leveraging big data (data coming out of enterprise systems), small data (personal data ) and dark data (data coming out due to devices) to make smarter decisions through machine learning and eventually becoming self learning. Mining this data through machine learning and AI & creating value is going to be key to creating new category leaders.We are looking for these category leaders.
Global Thinking
Solving a big problem in globally unique way
One of our critical criteria is if the teams are attacking big and fundamental problems on a global scale. While they might start in India, they have to think global. With our global network, we are in a unique place to help entrepreneurs realise their dream of building global companies.
Patient Passion
Strong desire to make a change with long half life...
We are looking for strong teams, showcasing the grit to remain focused on the problem statement over a long period of time. We work very closely to build teams if we find gaps. However, the passion, fire and desire to build a lasting change is expected in the founders right from day one.
We are here to help
We back our entrepreneurs and help them to think & execute globally
Manish Singhal
Founding Partner
Manish co-founded LetsVenture.com and led it to become the leading marketplace for startups & early stage investors in India. He is on the boards of startups like Locus, DropKaffe, Witworks, AdSparx, ApartmentADDA etc. He is an Alumnus of IIT Kanpur and loves wild life photography.
Umakant Soni
Founding Partner
Umakant founded an AI startup, Vimagino focused on building chatbots for support in 2010. Before this, he spent time at Wipro (Strategy for advance technology areas & in Innovation Arm). He was Director India for Science Inc. one of the leading startup studio (HQ. LA). Alumnus of IIT Kanpur, he loves painting abstracts.
Abishek Surendran
Partner
Abishek led several investments in some of the pioneering companies in AI in India as the founding team member of Exfinity Ventures like Mad Street Den, Yobi.ai, iQlect, Locus, MarianaIQ and Absentia. He holds a B.E.(Electronics) from Mumbai University & MBA from IIM Bangalore.
Roopan Aulakh
Principal
Roopan invested in early to growth stage global startups in robotics, semiconductor and renewable energy sectors while at Applied Ventures (corporate Venture Capital arm of Applied Materials). In her most recent role at Grant Thornton, she led fund raising mandates for pre Series A startups. She holds a BTech degree from NIT Jalandhar and an MBA from ISB Hyderabad.
Shamik Sharma
Venture Partner
Shamik Sharma was previously the Chief Product & Technology officer at Myntra. Shamik is also an angel investor and technology advisor for several Indian startups.
Shamik spent most of his career in the Bay area and held executive roles in Lytro, RockYou, Stumbleupon and Yahoo. Shamik holds degrees in computer science from IIT-Kharagpur and University of Maryland.
Dr. Peter Stone
pi Tech Council
Dr. Peter Stone is the David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor and Associate Chair of Computer Science, as well as Chair of the Robotics Portfolio Program, at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Stone is also co-founder, president, and COO of a startup company, Cogitai, Inc., focussed on empowering machines to understand the world through their own experience.
Amit Ranjan
pi Tech Council
Amit was the co-founder SlideShare, which he sold to Linkedin. Since then he has now moved over to the government/non-profit side. Currently working as the Architect for Digital Locker & OpenForge - two key egovernance projects under Digital India at National eGov Division, Ministry of IT. He is a well respected angel investor in tech startups.
Portfolio
We work closely with our companies to back them with our insights, global network and specialized focus on AI & Internet of Things
Deep learning driven blood diagnostics
Rohit and his co-founders, Tathagato Rai Dastidar and Apurv Anand, before founding Sigtuple, earlier worked together at American Express’s big data lab in Bangalore. Sigtuple's first solution Shonit™ is a complete peripheral blood smear analyser solution which automates the routine tasks like differential counts. Additionally, it provides a screening solution for various parasitic infections like Malaria and disorders like Anaemia. It starts by capturing images of blood smear slides with a phone fitted on a microscope. The images are analysed on cloud using state of the art image processing and deep learning techniques. Finally it generates reports containing differential blood counts, visualisations on various blood metrics and suggestions about any abnormalities. The report can then be reviewed by pathologists on any net connected device, from anywhere in the world, making this product useful for areas having dearth of specialists.
Intelligent Heart Monitoring
Cicer (ten3T) collects and integrates medical grade data in real-time through its self-contained wearable devices that it builds, deploys and manages. ten3T's devices included multiple sensors to collect continuously streaming clinical grade information on ECG, heart rate, respiratory rate, SpO2 and temperature - all gathered, analyzed and reported in real-time.
The Cicer patch is small, light and unobtrusive, and has been designed with proprietary innovations in data acquisition, wireless transmission, and analytics to provide a seamless healthcare monitoring system.
Machine learning driven energy management for retailers
Zenatix was co-founded by alumni of IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad and UCLA – Rahul Bhalla, Vishal Bansal and Dr. Amarjeet Singh. It uses advanced machine learning based models and delivers 10 to 30% energy efficiency to large commercial consumers of electricity. The models are built by collecting and analyzing more than 30 million of previously unseen (“dark”) data points every month from electrical assets. These models allow for automated and intelligent controls along with predictive and preventive maintenance of these assets, resulting in consistent and comfortable consumer experience in retail and banking sites while delivering high energy savings.
Zenatix has been acquired by Hero Electronix in May 2018
Machine learning driven breast cancer screening technology
Breast Cancer is the leading cause of cancer in women. It is well-established that early diagnosis is very critical in saving a life of a cancer patient. Co-founded by Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi Mathur, researchers at NIRAMAI have developed a new cancer screening software that uses machine intelligence over thermography images to enable a low cost, easy to use, portable solution and requires minimal human supervision. NIRAMAI solution uses a high resolution thermal sensing device and cloud hosted analytics solution for analysing the thermal images. The SaaS solution uses big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning for reliable, early and accurate breast cancer screening. The innovative methods used in the solution have led to multiple US patents.
Customer Success Box
Actionable Customer Success Solution for B2B
CSB’s actionable tool targets Customer Success Managers (CSM) at SaaS companies improving their productivity. The tool provides real time health score of customers using comprehensive usage metrics that a CSM can act on immediately. CSB’s human assisted intelligent software automates the repetitive tasks for CSMs allowing them to focus on building relationships with customers. For SaaS companies, losing a CSM could be disastrous as knowledge and relationships with customers is important to retain them. CSB helps SaaS companies institutionalize the interactions with customers.
Locus
Automating Logistics using AI
Locus is a decision making engine that uses deep learning and proprietary algorithms to provide intelligent route optimisation, real-time tracking, insights and analytics, beat optimization, efficient warehouse management, vehicle allocation and utilisation, intuitive 3D packing and measurement of packages. Locus has automated logistics for leading companies spread across many geographies like India, Singapore, Jakarta, Phoenix and Vancouver.
Investors
We have global and local backers
In Colour Capital
Sponsor
In Colour Capital (ICC) is an independent principal investment group, focused on identifying and unlocking deep value. Employing a singular blend of detail-oriented analysis and innovative, big-picture thinking, ICC invests in companies who have unrealized potential. By working together with these companies as partners, ICC helps unlock value and build stronger communities.
SIDBI
Investor
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), set up on April 2, 1990 under small industries development bank of India act, is the Principal Financial Institution for the Promotion, Financing and Development of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector and for Co-ordination of the functions of the institutions engaged in similar activities.
EDF
Investor
Electronic Development Fund (EDF) is set up as a “Fund of Funds” to participate in professionally managed “Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT).CANBANK Venture Capital Funds Ltd. (CVCFL)
is the Fund Manager for EDF.Hero Enterprise Investment Office
Investor
Hero Enterprise Investment Office represents Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal and his family members. Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal is a second generation member of the Munjal Family and is a founder promoter of the Hero Group, India’s premier automotive manufacturing group that has evolved from being the world’s largest bicycle-maker to the largest two-wheeler maker.
pi in the News
We are trying to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, and community around AI
Sunil Kant Munjal, EDF & Hero Electronix major contributors
Artificial intelligence and IoT-focused earlystage venture fund pi Ventures has achieved the second close of its $30-million fund at $25 million (about Rs 160 crore). The key contributors in this round include Hero Enterprise chairman Sunil Kant Munjal, Electronic Development Fund (managed by Canbank Ventures) and the corporate financing arm of Hero Electronix, along with high-net-worth investors.
pi Ventures is investing in early stage disruptive startups leveraging AI
pi Ventures, founded by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, is a $30M early stage fund focused on investing in AI & ML startups. CNBC TV18's Young Turks explores the thesis behind pi Ventures's Investments and how two portfolio AI startups Niramai & Sigtuple are changing the healthcare space through disruptive use of AI.
AI is becoming the big disruptive force across industries
In mid-2016, Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, both entrepreneurs in previous avatars, set up pi Ventures to invest in early-stage startups that use Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to solve problems across a range of sectors.
pi Venture does its first close at $13M
India's top technology entrepreneurs are teaming up to back an early-stage venture fund - pi Ventures - that will invest exclusively in startups using artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet-of-things, at a time when global interest in automation and robotics gains pace and technology majors such as Google and Amazon launch a slew of futuristic initiatives.
AI adoption will be faster in India
Closer home in India, Manish Singhal, who co-founded LetsVenture, and Umakant Soni, who had founded AI startup Vimagino, decided to join forces to start a new venture fund from India, but with a twist. Unlike other sector-agnostic funds, their aim was to focus on a few niche categories — AI, machine learning (ML), and Internet of things (IoT). Here is the story of pi Ventures, which is in the process of a closing a Rs 195 crore fund and has so far invested in three startups.
Deep learning to transform pathology
Today SigTuple, which uses computer vision and artificial intelligence for diagnosis, announced series A funding of US$5.8 million. This is the largest investment in a healthcare AI startup out of India. It will help SigTuple scale up and go global.
Accel Partners led the round. Other investors include IDG Ventures India, Pi Ventures, Axilor Ventures, and Endiya Partners. Solid backing for the Bangalore-based startup from marquee investors signals the arrival of Indian AI on the world stage.
Deep learnings for AI startups
Artificial intelligence is getting a lot of attention these days from startups and investors alike. Since Pi Ventures is a fund focused on supporting applied AI companies, we meet quite a few entrepreneurs every week who are building companies in the field. Interacting with these startups has been a very enlightening journey for us. Here are some lessons which may be useful for folks wanting to venture out into AI.
India could be the new home for AI startups
Niche early-stage investor pi Ventures is betting on the growth of the artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) in the country, and is looking to reach the first close of its $30 million fund. The artificial intelligence market is estimated to reach $5 billion by 2020 globally, and with Indian companies being one of the fastest adopters of AI, pi Ventures is trying to capture the market early. Founded last year by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, pi Ventures has already invested in three startups including Zenatix, ten3T Health (Cicer) and Sigtuple.
Coverage by Economic Times
For Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, it was a decision that had all the reasons to be made. With entrepreneurs finding novel ways to generate previously untapped data, artificial intelligence (AI)-based startups are gaining importance these days. So, they set up a unique AI-focussed fund pi Ventures.
The fund has a target corpus of $30 million (approximately Rs 200 crore) and will invest in the early stages of an AI-focussed startup.Zenatix is helping commercial spaces save on energy costs
Speaking about the company and opportunity, Manish Singhal, Founding Partner of pi Ventures said, “Their (Zenatix’s) integrated approach of building connected hardware, with sophisticated machine learning algorithm to work on resulting dark data generated is what will set them apart. In India cost of electricity is same as in US, despite the purchasing power parity. Thus it’s a big space with plenty of innovation & upside possibility, given the kind of data, Zenatix is starting to lay its hands on.”
Covered by Economic Times, Times of India, Inc42 & Others
Bengaluru-based medical grade wearable device startup, ten3T has raised an angel round of funding from pi Ventures.
Co-founded by Dr. Sudhir Borgonha, Rahul Shingrani, and Prasad Bhat, ten3T builds wearable medical devices that collect and integrates medical grade data in real time. It has developed its first wearable medical device ‘Cicer’, which will make cardiac health easily accessible to everyone. Read More
Hardware to connect physical world to digital
India is taking some early steps to create a robust hardware products ecosystem. This is critical as connected hardware would be a critical piece for connecting physical world to the digital ones. Check out Manish Singhal, pi Ventures as he talks about real challenges facing hardware startups in India and how to go about addressing them.
India could be an interesting place to build AI startups
Low cost and more easily available data, coupled with increasingly available data science talent can potentially make for an interesting place for AI startups to come up. Local businesses are buying into the predictive value of AI.
India can be a fertile ground for AI led vertical leaders
Pi Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, is looking to raise Rs 195 crore for its first fund, which will look to finance start-ups in artificial intelligence, machine learning and Internet of Things (IoT).
The fund, formed earlier this year by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, is currently on the road to tie up commitments.
In the last few months, while working with AI startups in Bangalore, we realized that most of the startups are working in silos, reinventing the wheel or getting stuck with unsolved problems, however, there is so much that they can share with each other, to grow faster together. To enable this community building in AI, we started #chAI (AI over a cuppa). We believe with this series of #chAIs, we can enable collaboration on technology and talent; building depth in the AI community and thereby resulting in world class AI companies to come out of India. You can join our meetup and be informed about coming #chAIs and participate in building a strong community around AI.
Resources
Some helpful resources on variety of topics
Investment Landscape in Artificial Intelligence
We partnered with Tracxn to map out the investment landscape in AI for global and India market.
AI, Deep Learning and Machine Learning: A Primer
Simple and intuitive primer on how machine learning and AI is influencing our lives by Frank Chen, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Crash Course on Raising Funds
An overview on what it takes to raise money for your startup by Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures
