Exclusive: Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures’ love for building products transitioned into his investment in start-ups

India is the third-largest cluster after the US and UK with around 200 AI start-ups according to a 2016 Zinnov Consulting study.

In the midst of comments on lack of innovation in the Indian startup ecosystem, some entrepreneurs are finding new paths to utilize previously untapped data, and artificial intelligence -based startups are gaining traction.
Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, Pi Ventures spoke to Business Insider to discuss the scope of the sector, “The need to start an AI-focused fund was felt when I realized that this sector is untapped. The India ecosystem is still very premature with every product start-up still struggling to raise money due to the high-risk nature of these disruptive technology businesses.”

Product is king

Singhal started investing early into his career as an angel investor for product start-ups and has 13 investments in his own capacity but his tryst with entrepreneurship started in 2013 with LetsVenture which is a platform for entrepreneurs to reach out for resources, whether it came in the form of advice or monetary support.
An IIT-Kanpur graduate, Singhal has always been a product-obsessed person working with companies like Tata and Motorola in India and Slingbox in the U.S. to build innovative technology solutions.

Manish also has two video technology patents to his name and becoming an entrepreneur and investor was a natural transition for him.
Technology focused

“Data is becoming an integral part of whatever we do. Products of the future would be the ones that apply this data well for predictions. Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning are the best methods to get the insights from the data. We believe that this will be the fundamental technology that will be at the core of everything we do and it will also cause disruption,” says Singhal who believes in the applied side of AI; where you’re solving a real business problem and AI is making a significant difference to what is out there.