(Bloomberg) – Premji Invest, India’s largest family office that manages software mogul Azim Premji’s more than $10 billion, says it will increase investments in artificial intelligence companies while tweaking its own AI investment tools. said a senior company executive.
The firm was one of the first major Indian asset management firms to use AI tools in the private equity space and is currently working on AI quantitative models for public market bets as well, said Managing Partner and Managing Partner. Chief Investment Officer TK Kurien said in the first article. The asset manager, which has been generating “exponential returns,” will also increase its investments in the AI space, he said.
Investment firms around the world, including BlackRock and SoftBank Group, are using AI to analyze data streams and gather market intelligence in real time, and are considering further investments in this space. Kurien said PremjiInvest started developing AI tools three years ago and has hired 14 AI engineers. At the same time, it began supporting companies entering the nascent technology field.
AI helps asset managers identify investment opportunities by scouring over 10,000 companies worldwide based on 600 parameters. Throughout the exercise, the company expects to gain a bird's-eye view of emerging technologies and trends that can help it stay ahead of its peers, Kurien said.
Data management software company Cohesity Inc., London-based enterprise software business Holistic AI, Ikigai and Pixis are among the companies in the sector that PremjiInvest has supported in the past.
Kuraen plans to give open source developers access to some of its AI tools. The foundation's engineers also developed a platform to help India's overburdened courts resolve cases faster and to support government efforts to more effectively deliver services. He said that he is doing so.
investment strategy
Kurien said Premji Invest's biggest bets will be on technology and financial services. In the Indian private market, two other sectors in which the company invests are consumer and healthcare. In the United States, investments are concentrated in the healthcare and technology sectors.
Premji, the reclusive billionaire founder of Wipro, established the family office in 2006 as a permanent investment vehicle to generate profits to support philanthropic causes. He donated most of his wealth to humanitarian causes in India.
Kurien, who has worked with Wipro for over 16 years to build operational skills, is looking for investments in the US with the latest technology that can be brought to India. His 120-member team at PremjiInvest oversees investments, operating out of offices in Menlo Park, California, and Bengaluru, India.
Kurien said the company returns about 5% of its capital to Premji's charitable foundation every year, but declined to provide details.
Kurien said Premji Invest's assets are allocated to private investments, listed stocks and investments in other funds. The 18-year-old company has seen its assets under management quadruple over the past eight years.
“We are patient capital with no exit deadline,” he said.
–With assistance from Sanjit Das, Rohit Pathak, and Suvashree Ghosh.
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