Early stage venture pi Ventures has achieved the first close of its maiden fund at $13 million. The $30-million fund is expected to close within this year. Investors in the fund include SIDBI, prominent family offices from the US, Canada, Singapore and India, and individual investors such as TV Mohandas Pai, Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra, Sanjeev Bikchandani and Bhupen Shah. The Bengaluru-based pi Ventures, with a focus on applied artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT, plans to invest in 18-20 start-ups from this fund over a 3-4-year timeframe.
Fincare closes ₹500-cr round
Fincare Business Services Ltd, a rural-centric financial inclusion platform, has closed a ₹500-crore investment from TA Associates, True North, Tata Opportunities Fund, LeapFrog Investments, SIDBI, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance and other investors.
Supr Daily, a subscription app delivering daily consumable goods such as milk, bread and eggs, has raised $120,000 from Y Combinator, as part of the leading accelerator’s mentorship programme. Supr Daily is one of the 12 start-ups to have been picked by Y Combinator for a three-month winter programme in Silicon Valley. Supr Daily follows a direct-to-consumer model to make deliveries. It will use the money to scale its pan-Mumbai operations in the next six months.
Villgro incubates Adhyayan
Social businesses incubator Villgro has provided seed funding to education start-up Adhyayan. The company provides educators a proprietary product made up of tools, process and framework for school self-review for long-term improvement. It also works with schools to help improve and build their capacity as a professional learning community. Villgro will also incubate Adhyayan.
RCap sells 1% stake in Payt m
Reliance Capital, the financial services arm of Anil Ambani’s Reliance group, has sold a 1 per cent stake in Paytm to Chinese internet giant Alibaba for about ₹275 crore. The transaction values Paytm at nearly $4.5 billion. Prior to this deal, investors led by Alibaba put in $200 million in Paytm’s e-commerce unit.
Angel funding for Fitso
Fitso, a health and fitness app, has raised $200,000 of angel funding from a group of angel investors, including Sujeet Kumar, ex-president, Flipkart; Bhupinder, CEO, INtelenet; Yashish Dhaiya, CEO, Policy Bazaar. Fitso will use the money to develop the product, expand its team, make the app more engaging and easy to use. Our Bureau