Early-stage venture fund pi Ventures, which invests in artificial intelligence and deep tech start-ups, has raised Rs 22 crores from Colruyt Group India, the Group’s extended IT arm based out of Hyderabad.

The investment comes after pi Ventures announced the first closing of its second fund at Rs 303.5 crore ($40 million) in Jan 2022. It raised funds from entrepreneurs, HNIs (High net-worth individuals) and family offices from across the globe. 

With Colruyt’s investment, the fund is reportedly on track to do its final close in the second quarter of the calendar year (CY)  2023 in the range of 675 crore to 750 crore. It is backed by BII, Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF (NIDIA), Accel, and entrepreneurs and family offices such as Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Mamaearth's co-founder Varun Alagh, Shaadi.com's founder Anupam Mittal, MakeMyTrip's founder Deep Kalra. Other backers include angel investor Samit Shetty, Fung Strategic Investment's executive director Rajesh Ranavat, investment banker Hemendra Kothari, InfoEdge's CEO Hitesh Oberoi, V-Guard Industries' director Ullas Kamath as well as senior leaders from IBM, Facebook and Google. 

The fund will invest in start-ups focused on AI and other forms of deep tech across sectors including, but not limited to blockchain, space tech, biotech and material science. 

pi Ventures will continue to focus on early-stage (seed/ pre-Series A/Series A) investments via this fund. It has so far committed to seven start-ups, including ImmunitoAI, Ottonomy.IO, Silence Laboratories and Preimage. The Fund plans to invest in around 25 similar start-ups in the next three years.

“Colruyt Group puts greater emphasis on pioneering tech-enabled solutions through continuous innovation. Our sustainable business approach enables us to remain agile and efficient to address the changing market and customer behaviour. Our association with Pi ventures is most opportune as we strongly believe in the digital possibilities where we ourselves are the biggest consumer of tech. We are excited to partner with pi ventures and their portfolio companies and to leverage our mutual capabilities to contribute actively to the digital evolution,” said Hari Subramanian, managing director of Colruyt Group India and Partner of Korys Investments India.   

“We are delighted to have the support from Colruyt. The confidence in our team and our investment strategy reinforces our commitment to supporting talented entrepreneurs who are creating disruptive products that solve fundamental real-world problems with innovative technology-backed solutions. 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.