Accel, Prosus and other VCs close to striking deals with half a dozen AI startups

I can bet there are at least a dozen more AI deals that VCs are negotiating right at this point, an investor told Moneycontrol

Venture capital (VC) firms such as Accel, Prosus, Stellaris Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures and others are in advanced stages of investing in at least six artificial intelligence (AI) startups as investors across the board look to strengthen their AI portfolio and increase exposure to an industry which has become a favourite among investors, several people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

Accel is, in fact, in the early stages of inking at least two AI deals to grow its AI portfolio.

The VC firm is close to cutting a $1.5 million (around Rs 13 crore) cheque for Vaya, an AI astrology startup, and another $4 million-5 million (around Rs 35-45 crore) cheque for August AI, an AI-enabled healthcare guidance company, as per sources.

It’s not just Accel. Prosus and Stellaris Venture Partner are also in the race to back AI firms to diversify their portfolio and have exposure to the tech of the future.

Dutch major Prosus is discussing a $4 million-5 million (around Rs 35-45 crore) investment in Arivihan, an Indian AI-based automated learning platform, sources told Moneycontrol.

Similarly, Stellaris Venture Partners, the homegrown VC firm, is negotiating a $5 million (around Rs 45 crore) deal with Pivot AI, sources said. While these are relatively larger deals, VC firms are even cutting smaller cheques for AI companies, a move that underscores that not all AI firms need massive capital to function and scale.

Golden Sparrow VC is in the final stages of investing $4,00,000 (around Rs 3.4 crore) in HostedAI, a software platform that helps manage GPU resources, as per sources.

“I can bet there are at least a dozen more AI deals that VCs are negotiating right at this point – every VC wants to have an AI play in some form or the other. However big or small,” one of the persons cited above told Moneycontrol.

AI deals are also on the rise as firms that were in other industries, in SaaS for instance, are now pivoting, or are building their businesses in a different way to stay more relevant.

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While most of these deals are new investments for the aforementioned VC firms, there are other funds that are doubling down on their previous AI bets as they see encouraging results.

Hakimo AI, an AI-powered remote guarding and monitoring solutions provider, is preparing to raise fresh capital from Vertex Ventures, an existing backer.

While Accel, Vaya, August AI, Prosus, Arivihan, Stellaris Venture Partners, Pivot AI, Hakimo AI, Vertex Ventures and HostedAI did not reply to Moneycontrol’s queries, Golden Sparrow VC confirmed the developments.

AI dealmaking

While these are all new fundraises – AI deals have been mushrooming over the past few months. Since the beginning of this year, several AI startups have raised hundreds of millions of dollars as investors bet big on the AI wave.

Earlier this year, Beacon.li, an AI-driven product assistant platform, secured $7 million (around Rs 60 crore) from Sorin Investments.

Similarly, MaxIQ, an AI-powered customer journey management company, raised $7.8 million (around Rs 66 crore) from Dell Technologies Capital and Intel Capital.

Earlier in the year, Phot.AI, an AI-driven photo editing tool provider, raised $2.7 million (around Rs 23 crore) from Info Edge Ventures, Together Fund, and AC Ventures and Harvested Robotics, an AI-driven laser weeding technology company, raised Rs 5 crore (around $600k) from Arali Ventures.

RapidClaims, an AI-powered revenue cycle management platform for healthcare providers, raised $8 million (around Rs 52 crore) from Accel and Together Fund a few weeks ago. Hypergro.ai, an AI-powered video generation and conversion platform for marketing, also scooped up funds in a fresh round.

Globally, investors are backing promising companies.

Apart from OpenAI’s massive $40 billion fundraise from SoftBank and others, firms such as Nexthop AI, a company building the AI networking infrastructure for hyperscalers, also raised $110 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners as investors bet big on the potentially massive outcomes of AI and related startups.