Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF), an early stage deep-tech and intellectual property (IP) focused venture has announced the first close of its $100 million fund.
The venture has received the first close of the fund at approximately $50 million with secured commitments from institutional investors such as corporates, banks, insurers, and fund of funds.
The various fund investors include SIDBI through its Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) program, ICICI Lombard, Philips, Bajaj Electricals Ltd., RBL Bank, among others.
“Indian entrepreneurs are producing globally-competitive IP-driven innovations across themes like healthcare/biotech, agriculture, energy, and enterprise-tech – enabled by cutting-edge research and trends like AI, ML, IoT, India Stack, among others. Bharat Innovation Fund will catalyse these transformational deep-tech startups by providing them capital, access to market, strategic inputs and partnership connects,” said Kunal Upadhyay, Managing Partner of Bharat Innovation Fund.
BIF is affiliated with the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad. The fund aims to support and bolster entrepreneurs in the emerging sectors of the market such as agriculture, health, energy as well as enterprises. Along with this, they also support corporates adopting digital technologies, especially technologies related to manufacturing and design.
Apart from the above-mentioned objectives, the fund is also eyeing to enable access to global networks, distribution channels, deep sectoral understanding, strategic insights and research infrastructure. Some of the sectors in will be fintech, agriculture and renewable energy amongst others.
MK Raveesha, CGM at SIDBI said, “SIDBI and FFS (DIPP) are delighted to partner with the Bharat Innovation Fund to support deep-innovation driven startups. Bharat Innovation Fund is a unique partnership comprising of strategic and financial investors – and a strong experienced team. We hope to together create a breakthrough and globally competitive solutions from India”.
Talking about the team, the BIF’s team includes: Upadhyay and Shyam Menon, co-founders of Infuse Ventures, Ashwin Raguraman (former COO of India Innovation Fund), Sanjay Jain (former Product Manager at Google and Chief Product Manager at UIDAI) and Som Pal Choudhury (former Managing Director of Analog Devices, India).