Nagraj Kashyap-led Microsoft Ventures launches new fund for AI startups Techcircle.in - India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding

US-based Microsoft Ventures, the venture capital arm of software giant Microsoft, announced on Monday that it has formed a new fund for investments in startups focused on artificial intelligence. Nagraj Kashyap, who heads Microsoft Ventures, confirmed the development in a blog post. The corpus of the new fund was not announced, but the company has already made its first investment from this fund in Montreal-based firm Element AI. "This new fund will make investments of similar size to previous Microsoft Ventures investments, and will only include businesses with promise for strong financial returns (as opposed to non-profits or NGOs)," Kashyap wrote in a blog post. Founded in 2016, Element AI offers artificial intelligence solutions to large corporations through its incubator platform. The firm's team comprises academic researchers from research labs across North America.