pi Ventures Investment Trust (IFC-39421)

Countries
  • India
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
FI
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Apr 24, 2017
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
PI VENTURES FUND I
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Equity
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 3.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 40.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Apr 5, 2022

Disclosed by Bank Mar 21, 2017

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

The proposed project is an investment in Pi Ventures Investment Trust (or “Pi Ventures” or the “Fund”), registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) as a Category I Alternative Investment Fund under the SEBI (AIF) Regulations, 2012. The Fund will invest in equity and equity linked instruments in 20-24 Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) / Machine Learning (“ML”) / Internet of Things (“IOT”) enabled companies focused on healthcare, smart cities, fintech, retail, cyber security, logistics and enterprise automation across India.

The investment is through the IFC Startup Catalyst (“ISC”) program and is intended to support local innovation and entrepreneurship. Through ISC, IFC invests in sustainable seed stage funding mechanisms, including accelerators and seed funds, to support early stage local entrepreneurship on a global basis.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The Fund is governed by Vistra ITCL (India) Limited (Formerly IL&FS Trust Company Limited, India) (“Trustee”) which will exercise control and supervision over operations.

Pi Partners LLP, India (“Investment Manager”), founded by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni (collectively “Founders”) will be engaged by the Fund to serve as its investment advisor.

The Fund seeks to raise US$30 to 40 million in capital commitments, subject to necessary approvals from the Trustee. IFC proposes an equity investment of INR equivalent of US$3 million, not to exceed 20% of total commitments.

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Pi Ventures Fund I specializes in early stage and startup investments and follow-on investments till the series A stage. It seeks to invest in sectors such as internet of things, drones, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and electronic and hardware products and companies that focus on solving problems in healthcare, logistics, retail, fin-tech, and enterprise sectors using AI, Machines Learning, and IoT.


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

How it works

How it works