Premji Invest to take platform approach, seek greater ownership in portfolio companies

Premji Invest is looking to take greater ownership in the companies it backs and move beyond the traditional venture capital model, as the family office seeks to build businesses and deepen its conviction in select bets, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol. While Premji Invest will continue to participate in follow-on rounds of its portfolio companies to increase stake, it will also explore other ways to increase ownership. Premji Invest will look to come in early and back founders from the start. "Premji Invest is also looking at building businesses from scratch, with a founder brought in to run the show and given equity in the venture. The family office would retain a larger stake in these businesses," one of the people cited above said. Taking early bets Premji Invest is in the advanced stages of investing around $25 million (about Rs 230 crore) in Anaira AI, a new startup by Sanjeev Srinivasan, former MD and CEO of Acko Insurance, along with others, sources told Moneycontrol. This will be among Anaira's first funding rounds as Premji looks to take a sizable stake and put its new strategy in place. Anaira AI and Premji did not reply to Moneycontrol's queries. The family office is also backing former employees who are turning entrepreneurs, making early bets with an eye on retaining a sizable stake. Moneycontrol had reported earlier that Premji Invest was leading a $150 million investment, with a $55 million cheque, in Bijith Bhaskar's non-banking financial company (NBFC) startup. Bhaskar was previously a partner at Premji Invest before setting up the fintech startup. Premji Invest followed a similar strategy and increased stake in existing portfolio companies, like Weaver Services, a housing finance company started by former HDFC executive Satrajit Bhattacharya. Emversity, Dezerv, Giva, FirstCry, iD Fresh Foods, Kreditbee, Purplle, The Sleep Company, and several others are other bets that Premji Invest has taken in India. Globally, its portfolio is more skewed towards AI, with companies such as Devoted Health, Poolside and Canva among its investments. Hedging AI bets While AI will remain a central theme for Premji Invest, the family office is also looking to invest in infrastructure and companies building for India's domestic needs, Moneycontrol has learnt. Within the latter category, defence supply chains and companies focused on import substitution - essentially, businesses making in India products and components that the country currently relies on imports for - are expected to be key areas of focus. These infrastructure bets, including investments such as Adani Airports, Akasa Airlines, will also provide a counterbalance to the fund's AI-heavy portfolio, another person aware of the investor's plans said. The shift marks a broader change in how Premji Invest is looking to deploy capital - from backing a wider set of companies as a financial investor to taking higher-conviction, larger ownership positions in businesses it believes can scale over the long term. The strategy will allow the family office to build exposure across AI and emerging businesses while balancing those bets with more capital-intensive plays in infrastructure and India's domestic economy.