Stellaris Ventures' strategic move: Embracing gen AI, sustainability

livemint.com:

Stellaris Venture Partners anticipates a significant uptick in deal activity within generative artificial intelligence (genAI) and sustainability, and has strategically integrated the emerging opportunities into its investment mandate, Rahul Chowdhri, partner, Stellaris Venture, said. The venture capital (VC) firm, which had raised its $225 million second fund in 2021, has backed software-as-a-service (SaaS), business-to- business (B2B) marketplaces, and consumer firms from the fund. “In the last two years, we have added gen AI and sustainability to our investment focus for fund II," said Chowdhri.

“We do not do pre-allocate to themes as we have a bottoms-up approach," he said. “However, we expect to see an increase in deal flows, especially for gen-AI over the next year." In February, Stellaris invested $6 million in Carpl, a platform offering AI solutions in radiology. Last August, it had backed Kombai, which facilitates basic user coding through artificial intelligence.

Stellaris, along with other investors also infused $5 million into Dashtoon Studio in December 2003. The company enables users to create graphics, comics, and digital illustration using artificial intelligence, regardless of their artistic talent. Content creation is particularly susceptible to gen-AI disruption, where AI tools can reduce human efforts drastically, he added.