IFC Pumps In $3 Mn In AI Focused Fund pi Ventures

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank Group, is investing $3 million in pi Ventures’ maiden fund. Fun plans to utilise freshly infused fund for investing in companies leveraging technologies such as applied artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and IoT across a range of sectors.

Commenting on the development, Ruchira Shukla, Regional Lead, Venture Capital, South Asia, IFC said, “This investment is aligned with IFC’s objective to act as a catalyst to spur entrepreneurial activity and support technology startups that drive innovation in India and globally, and solve complex problems across industries.”

IFC is making investments through the ‘IFC Startup Catalyst programme’ which aims to build local ecosystems to drive innovation and entrepreneurship. IFC has both a direct investment practice and is also a Limited Partner (LP) to local PE and VC funds.

Founded in mid 2016 by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, pi Ventures is an early stage investment fund focused on startups in the area such as applied artificial intelligence, machine learning and internet of things (IoT). Till date, fund has made four investments in the healthcare and energy-efficiency space, namely Sigtuple, Zenatix, Ten3T and NIRAMAI. Earlier in March 2017, pi Ventures had announced the first close at $13 million.

“Getting IFC to back us in our journey is very meaningful to us. Not only do they bring a wealth of knowledge but also a world-wide network which can be very useful for our investee companies. We appreciate IFC backing disruptive product companies in the Applied AI space via pi Ventures,” said Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures.

IFC's committed portfolio in India is over $5 billion as of June 30, 2016. In FY16, IFC committed $1.1 billion in new investments in the country. In addition to strengthening local capital markets in India, IFC is focused on boosting financing in infrastructure and logistics, promoting financial inclusion, helping create conditions to attract increased private capital, and helping structure public-private partnerships.

IFC’s focus areas in venture capital include consumer internet, edutech, healthtech, cleantech and emerging technology solutions based on data analytics and AI.  IFC’s venture capital investments in India include online grocery major Big Basket, edtech startup Byju, Portea- a company providing affordable home-care and Blackbuck, a leading player in elogistics.

IFC Pumps In $3 Mn In AI Focused Fund pi Ventures

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank Group, is investing $3 million in pi Ventures’ maiden fund. Fun plans to utilise freshly infused fund for investing in companies leveraging technologies such as applied artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and IoT across a range of sectors.

Commenting on the development, Ruchira Shukla, Regional Lead, Venture Capital, South Asia, IFC said, “This investment is aligned with IFC’s objective to act as a catalyst to spur entrepreneurial activity and support technology startups that drive innovation in India and globally, and solve complex problems across industries.”

IFC is making investments through the ‘IFC Startup Catalyst programme’ which aims to build local ecosystems to drive innovation and entrepreneurship. IFC has both a direct investment practice and is also a Limited Partner (LP) to local PE and VC funds.

Founded in mid 2016 by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, pi Ventures is an early stage investment fund focused on startups in the area such as applied artificial intelligence, machine learning and internet of things (IoT). Till date, fund has made four investments in the healthcare and energy-efficiency space, namely Sigtuple, Zenatix, Ten3T and NIRAMAI. Earlier in March 2017, pi Ventures had announced the first close at $13 million.

“Getting IFC to back us in our journey is very meaningful to us. Not only do they bring a wealth of knowledge but also a world-wide network which can be very useful for our investee companies. We appreciate IFC backing disruptive product companies in the Applied AI space via pi Ventures,” said Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures.

IFC's committed portfolio in India is over $5 billion as of June 30, 2016. In FY16, IFC committed $1.1 billion in new investments in the country. In addition to strengthening local capital markets in India, IFC is focused on boosting financing in infrastructure and logistics, promoting financial inclusion, helping create conditions to attract increased private capital, and helping structure public-private partnerships.

IFC’s focus areas in venture capital include consumer internet, edutech, healthtech, cleantech and emerging technology solutions based on data analytics and AI.  IFC’s venture capital investments in India include online grocery major Big Basket, edtech startup Byju, Portea- a company providing affordable home-care and Blackbuck, a leading player in elogistics.

Let'sVenture Founder Manish Singhal Quits

Bangalore based angel deal making platform Let'sVenture seemed to have hit the founder trouble just one year into its launch. One of the three founders, Manish Singhal, has quit the organization citing personal reasons. Shanti Mohan and Sanjay Jha, the other two founders continue to be associated with the platform which is backed by Accel Partners and a number of other high-profile angels.

According to some sources, the split in the founder team is amicable. "Shanti and Manish figured out in the last few months that they had very different styles and personalities. Rather than have that become a problem, they parted ways gracefully" said Sharad Sharma to Economic Times. Sharma is an advisor to Let’sVenture and co-founder of iSpirit foundation.

Mohan will now manage business development and strategy, following Manish’s resignation, while Jha will continue to handle product development. “Manish decided to leave for personal reasons. The departure has not affected Let’sVenture, as we are three co-founders. We are also aggressively hiring and don’t see any impact on business” said Shanti Mohan in an email response to the Economic Times.

San Francisco based Let’sVenture helps startups in setting their feet in the market by connecting them to accredited investors and getting them seed capital. The platform which is often compared to AngelList received validation in May this year when it was successful in raising Rs. 4 Crore from a group of 21 investors. The investors list also included Bangalore based Accel Partners. Top run angels such as Indus Net Technologies founder Abhishek Rungta, InMobi founder Naveen Tewari, Google India head Rajan Anandan etc. were active participants in the round.

Let’sVenture went live in mid 2013 with an aim of making the process of fund raising easier for non-profit organisations. Mohan had earlier worked with non-profits for a while and realized that they had an equally tough time in raising angel capital. This realization of hers lead to the creation of Let’sVenture and Jha and Singhal joined her in the process. Singhal had a prior experience in working in the startup ecosystem after he sold his own startup, Sling Media, while Jha had earlier worked in the sphere of product development in companies like CDC Software and Aptean.

 

Let'sVenture Founder Manish Singhal Quits

Bangalore based angel deal making platform Let'sVenture seemed to have hit the founder trouble just one year into its launch. One of the three founders, Manish Singhal, has quit the organization citing personal reasons. Shanti Mohan and Sanjay Jha, the other two founders continue to be associated with the platform which is backed by Accel Partners and a number of other high-profile angels.

According to some sources, the split in the founder team is amicable. "Shanti and Manish figured out in the last few months that they had very different styles and personalities. Rather than have that become a problem, they parted ways gracefully" said Sharad Sharma to Economic Times. Sharma is an advisor to Let’sVenture and co-founder of iSpirit foundation.

Mohan will now manage business development and strategy, following Manish’s resignation, while Jha will continue to handle product development. “Manish decided to leave for personal reasons. The departure has not affected Let’sVenture, as we are three co-founders. We are also aggressively hiring and don’t see any impact on business” said Shanti Mohan in an email response to the Economic Times.

San Francisco based Let’sVenture helps startups in setting their feet in the market by connecting them to accredited investors and getting them seed capital. The platform which is often compared to AngelList received validation in May this year when it was successful in raising Rs. 4 Crore from a group of 21 investors. The investors list also included Bangalore based Accel Partners. Top run angels such as Indus Net Technologies founder Abhishek Rungta, InMobi founder Naveen Tewari, Google India head Rajan Anandan etc. were active participants in the round.

Let’sVenture went live in mid 2013 with an aim of making the process of fund raising easier for non-profit organisations. Mohan had earlier worked with non-profits for a while and realized that they had an equally tough time in raising angel capital. This realization of hers lead to the creation of Let’sVenture and Jha and Singhal joined her in the process. Singhal had a prior experience in working in the startup ecosystem after he sold his own startup, Sling Media, while Jha had earlier worked in the sphere of product development in companies like CDC Software and Aptean.