Latest news with #PiLabs
Zawya
22-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Dar Ventures invests in Pi Labs' latest built environment technology-focused fund
Dar Ventures – the UAE-based venture capital (VC) arm of Dar, a world‑class design and engineering consultancy and the founder of the award-winning top 10 international design collaborative Sidara – has invested in Pi Labs' latest built environment technology fund, enhancing its exposure to start-ups at the cutting edge of innovation in real estate, construction, infrastructure, and related services. Pi Labs' fourth institutional fund, which is targeting a £100 million close, will invest in up to 50 pre-seed to Series A companies with the potential to scale globally at pace. The fund is focusing on the new wave of AI-native start-ups developing the most compelling technology solutions to challenges across the global built environment, such as making construction more sustainable and efficient, building healthier or more liveable cities, optimising architecture, engineering, construction and property management and reducing carbon footprints of commercial assets. Pi Labs has identified several long-term secular trends shaping the future of the built world, including how next generation AI and robotics will transform logistics, data centres, residential development, city planning and construction material supply chains. The VC acts as a gateway between real estate owners, operators, construction firms, and service providers and the technology start-ups transforming the sector. Dar Ventures joins Pi Labs' global LP network which comprises blue-chip real estate investors and developers. The network includes Dutch pension fund APG; Abu-Dhabi based Aldar; UK and European institutions such as Patrizia, Assura, Revcap, Helical, and Sellar; and investors and developers from further afield such as the Indian developer Embassy Group, Hong Kong developer Swire Properties, and Canada's Hopewell Group. Since launching in 2015, Pi Labs has amassed a $2 billion portfolio comprising almost 100 companies, making it the world's most active early-stage property technology-focussed VC. It has fully exited its first fund, which delivered a 10x gross return to investors and outperformed the top decile of VC funds between 2015-2023. The VC has delivered 17 company exits to date, having identified and backed firms such as LandTech and OfficeRnD at an early stage in their global growth journeys. Faysal Shair, Director and Co-Founder of Dar Ventures Said: "As leaders within the global AEC industry, Dar and Sidara have always been committed to driving innovation that empowers communities through more sustainable, more resilient, and more welcoming built environments. As such, Dar Ventures' purpose is to support innovators who are confronting the world's most critical challenges, and in doing so, shaping a more sustainable, resilient and digitally enabled built environment for everyone. By investing in Pi Labs' latest fund, we can leverage our extensive AEC expertise and exposure to foster, guide, and empower the next wave of AI breakthroughs in the built world, in particular, the application of LLMs to each aspect of the real estate value chain. Through this strategic partnership with Pi Labs, we hope to continue tackling the sector's biggest challenges, including decarbonisation and resource efficiency, in order to accelerate technologies that redefine how the built environment is designed, delivered and operated." Faisal Butt, Managing Partner and Founder of Pi Labs, said: 'Real estate is the world's largest asset class and faces several challenges such as labour shortages, sustainability targets, resource scarcity and costly inefficient manual processes. The good news is that this new AI wave has created multiple AI-native startups for pretty much every industry pain point. The challenge will be identifying winners and backing them at an early stage to expand into global markets. With the support of this initial closing from Dar Ventures and Sidara, and our other LPs, we are confident that the next property technology unicorns will be found.' For further information, please contact: FTI Consulting pilabs@ About Pi Labs Pi Labs is an early-stage venture capital firm based in London backing founders who are building the sustainable cities of the future. The firm has made over 90 investments since 2015, across 15 countries, from over three funds, and has delivered 17 exits. Pi Labs' portfolio of globally scalable startups are transforming the built world by building a digital, sustainable future, fit for generations to come. For more information, visit: Neel Bose Director Strategic Communications FTI Consulting +44 (0)7594 889303 200 Aldersgate | Aldersgate Street London | EC1A 4HD | United Kingdom
Entrepreneur
21-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
How Generative AI Is Shaping Public Discourse During Geopolitical Tensions
"Specifically, adversaries are deploying Natural Language Generation (NLG) models to produce synthetic news articles, social media posts, and deepfake multimedia content that appear highly credible and are designed to sow discord or confusion among the population," Ankush Sabharwal, Founder and CEO, CoRover Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. The scale and sophistication of AI-generated misinformation in India is rising sharply. In 2025 alone, the country is projected to lose INR 70,000 crore to deepfake-related frauds, according to Pi-Labs' "Digital Deception Epidemic" report. Since 2019, deepfake-linked cybercrime cases have surged by over 550 per cent. As geopolitical tensions escalate, generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly being misused to manipulate narratives, and stir panic in public. With social media platforms transcending borders and verification frameworks, the spread of fake content often indistinguishable from reality has become alarmingly easy. Now the question is how prepared is India to defend itself from these emerging threats? A new age of information warfare Experts warn that both state and non-state actors are leveraging GenAI to launch influence campaigns during moments of national vulnerability. "Hostile actors are leveraging AI-driven technologies, particularly generative models and deep learning algorithms, to manipulate public narratives in India. These actors utilise AI for large-scale content generation, sentiment manipulation, and disinformation amplification across digital platforms," shared Ankush Sabharwal, Founder and CEO, CoRover. "Specifically, adversaries are deploying Natural Language Generation (NLG) models to produce synthetic news articles, social media posts, and deepfake multimedia content that appear highly credible and are designed to sow discord or confusion among the population." Sabharwal added that these campaigns often exploit regional languages, cultural sensitivities, and fault lines through micro-targeting, especially during elections or military flare-ups. A race against time While the volume of synthetic content is accelerating, India's cyber defence systems are attempting to keep pace. "India has made commendable progress through initiatives like the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which employs AI/ML-based threat intelligence systems to monitor anomalies and respond to cyber incidents proactively," Sabharwal noted. Yet vulnerabilities remain, particularly in coordination and speed. "Although India has made great progress in strengthening its cyber defences and media integrity, the speed at which AI-driven misinformation is spreading necessitates more flexible and comprehensive countermeasures," explained Ankit Sharma, Senior Director and Head, Solutions Engineering, Cyble. Further Sharma added, "India's digital borders need dynamic, real-time monitoring with quick takedown mechanisms, just like its physical borders, which are protected by layered surveillance." High risk in tier 2 and tier 3 regions Sharma also believes that misinformation and deep fakes pose greater danger in Tier-2 and Tier-3 regions where digital literacy remains low, but smartphone and social media usage is high. "The risk is extremely high," said Sharma. "When AI-created disinformation, particularly voice recordings or videos in local languages is distributed into these communities, the information is ingested without fact-checking…One effectively written AI-fabricated instance of misinformation can trigger real-world effects ranging from social tension to election manipulation or cyberattacks on critical infrastructure," he noted. The legal void There is growing consensus that India urgently needs a dedicated legal framework to combat AI-powered fake news especially in times of national crisis. "India needs, at an urgent level, a legal framework to deal with the weaponisation of AI in the information space, particularly in the event of war or national emergencies," Sharma emphasised. Further he said that the current IT laws are at times inadequate in dealing with the sophistication of synthetic media, transnational attribution, or algorithmic amplification. While concluding Sabharwal said, "A framework should mandate AI watermarking, source traceability, and accountability for hosting platforms while ensuring innovation isn't stifled."
