With a fresh war chest, Piper Serica eyes ₹180-220 crore deployment across 4

New Delhi: Armed with a fresh investment war chest, Piper Serica expects to deploy ₹180-220 crore across 4-6 deep-tech startups this fiscal, as it scouts opportunities in areas like space technology, semiconductors, advanced electronics, energy and life sciences, according to its Director Ajay Modi.The investment firm's new Bharat Tech Fund, a Category II AIF, targeting a corpus of ₹600 crore, alongside a greenshoe option of ₹200 crore, has already raised about ₹400 crore and evaluated around 30-35 startups in the hunt for the next investment, Modi told PTI.The fund expects to make some of its first commitments over the next month or so, with investments typically ranging from ₹25 crore to ₹50 crore per company."We have already started the process of identifying opportunities; we have evaluated almost 30-35 startups already in the hunt for the next investment by the Bharat Tech Fund. We are close to making some advancements in our commitments in the next month or so," he said.Piper Serica's focus areas include semiconductors, advanced electronics, spacetech, artificial intelligence, energy and life sciences.The firm believes these sectors are entering a strong growth phase aided by policy support, increasing domestic capability, digital infrastructure, manufacturing expansion, and global supply chain shifts."Bharat Tech Fund is our second fund...our first fund started in late 2022; it was a ₹270 crore Sebi-registered, Category 1 AIF, VCF...we have invested in approximately 34 deep tech startups from that fund, and Bharat Tech Fund is a continuation journey of that," Modi said.Piper Serica sees semiconductors, advanced electronics, energy, life sciences, space technology and other emerging technologies as "sectors of the future" that will drive India's growth.According to Modi, the new fund is seeking to tap what Piper Serica sees as India's emerging "deep innovation cycle", driven by a convergence of policy support, capital, academia and institutions, alongside a growing pool of founders willing to take risks on complex technologies."I think as a country, we have everything it takes to build these technologies," he said, pointing to India's evolving deep tech ecosystem.The fund is looking to back ventures where founders have already done the heavy lifting of developing the technology and taking it from the laboratory to commercial scale, and are now seeking growth capital to expand their businesses."...we are looking at these sectors that we mentioned, where founders have already done the hard work of building technology, taking the technology from a lab scale to a commercial scale and now looking for growth capital to expand on their business funnel," he said.Among individual sectors, Modi is particularly bullish on space technology, as well as the broader semiconductor and advanced electronics ecosystem.Lauding Skyroot Aerospace for scripting history with Vikram-1, India's first private orbital launch, he said that the country's growing launch capabilities could create opportunities across the value chain, including satellite bus, payload systems and satellite communications, as companies demonstrate their technologies and begin generating early revenues.On electronics, he noted India has built a sizeable assembly and manufacturing base and the opportunity now lies in moving deeper into components, sensors and other parts of the supply chain.Advanced electronics and semiconductors are also areas that Piper Serica remains bullish about, he said, drawing parallels with the way the country's automotive industry evolved from assembly to a deeper component play.India also needs to continue investing in upskilling engineers to equip them for industrial and deeptech applications, he said, expressing confidence that founders here are increasingly capable of building globally competitive and respected technology businesses.Put simply, deep tech encompasses technologies rooted in fundamental scientific research and advanced engineering, typically aimed at solving complex, real-world challenges.Rather than offering incremental improvements to existing products or processes, these innovations hold the promise to reshape entire industries and create new markets or ways of operating. Many of the technologies now regarded as commonplace - from electricity to telephones and automobiles - started as breakthroughs at the cutting-edge of science and engineering.India - the third-largest startup hub in the world after the US and China - is rapidly expanding into new technology frontiers such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space, robotics and data centres, positioning itself at the forefront of global innovation and technological advancement.