Nagraj Kashyap, former managing partner of Softbank Vision Fund (SVF), along with Priya Saiprasad and Samir Kumar from Microsoft’s venture capital fund M12, has introduced a new fund named Touring Capital. This fund is dedicated to supporting software companies with profound artificial intelligence (AI) innovations.
In a Medium blog post, the VC firm stated, “We founded Touring Capital with the shared belief that the software paradigm will evolve rapidly in the near term. Advances in AI will fuel major productivity gains across all sectors and lines of business and reshape the way we build and interact with software.”
Saiprasad, who held a partnership role at Softbank Investment Advisers from 2021 to 2023 before joining Microsoft’s venture fund M12, joins forces with Kumar, who served as the managing partner at M12 from 2017 to 2022. Additionally, Kashyap was a partner at M12 from 2016 to 2021 before joining SVF.
Together, this trio has co-founded and developed Qualcomm Ventures and M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), collectively supporting 16 unicorns and overseeing 26 successful exited investments.
“We’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to partner with generational founders including Eric at Zoom, Johan at Kahoot, Glen at Livongo, Abhinav at Innovaccer, Manny at Outreach, Qasar at Applied Intuition, and Andrew at Go1,” the blog post read.
The founding team of Touring Capital includes Priya Saiprasad, Samir Kumar, Carol Yi, Lee Feldman, Nagraj Kashyap, and Evan Wijaya.
Touring is a global fund and will provide support to startups across North America, India, Australia, and Europe.
“Our debut fund will predominantly focus on investing in Series B and Series C rounds of category-defining software companies powered by AI,” stated the partners in the blog.
This initiative comes at a time when venture capitalists in India and globally are increasingly investing in AI companies. Data curated by Tracxn reveals that Lightspeed Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, BlackSoil, Prime Venture Partners, and others have begun funding AI startups in 2023 after making no such investments the previous year.
Investors are directing a significant portion of AI investments into generative AI startups, following the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the availability of application programming interfaces (APIs).
A recent report by Stellaris Venture Partners and the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank Group arm, suggested that Indian SaaS startups utilizing AI could create $500 billion in market value by 2030.
Touring will focus on AI-SaaS startups and has secured backing from family offices and a select group of founders.
“We are incredibly grateful to receive support from institutional firms, family offices, as well as a network of over 25 founders who we’ve previously worked with, highlighting our commitment to strong, long-lasting relationships with entrepreneurs,” concluded the blog post.
