L'Oreal-backed Investment Firm Announces the First Close of Its Second Fund The target is to reach $100 million and the total commitments have already crossed $60 million to date
By Bhavya Kaushal •
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Early stage investor Fireside Ventures announced the first close of its second fund, which has a target of $100 million. The total commitments have already crossed $60 million to date.
According to Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Partner of Fireside Ventures, the second fund aims to double down on the success of the first fund and follow the same strategy of investing in exciting young millennial brands and helping them with a strong ecosystem support. Fireside Ventures launched the first fund in February 2018 which had raised INR 340 crore.
The round was closed with participation from global as well as domestic investors including the likes of French personal care company L'Oréal. Launched in May 2017, Fireside Ventures is an investment company that is focused on pumping capital in consumer brands with definite branding opportunities. The 3 focal scope of investment include brand, consumer and product.
The second fund also announced its first investment in personal care brand Gyanoveda. It has a, impressive list of portfolio companies including the likes of Mamaearth, Yoga Bar, Magic Crate, Pipa+Bella and BoAt, Vahdam Teas, Bombay Shaving Company, Goodness!, Kwik 24, Samosa Singh, DesignCafe, and Alpha Vector.
Taking Brands Towards Growth & Beyond Borders
Commenting on the fund, Singh also said, "The Indian start-up ecosystem for consumer brands is evolving rapidly and we are seeing significant new opportunities to build large consumer brands across multiple sectors and themes. We have witnessed a lot of interest from domestic and global investors including family offices, strategics, large Institutions, etc. in investing in Fireside Fund II."
Singh also said that they are also starting to see credible opportunities for Indian brands to go global. This is an important point to note specially in the wake of the world start-up ecosystem which is booming. With the number of unicorns in India already exceeding 25, the nation has the potential to lead the world start-up ecosystem.
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Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the convocation of IIT-Madras recently announced that India is on the third spot in the top start-up nations of the world, with more than 7,000 startups in the ecosystem. The time to go global is definitely ripe for Indian start-ups especially when top investors from Japan, China and USA are ready to sign big checks for the companies. Since the investors to start-ups ratio in India is very low, there is a rising need for the emergence of more home-grown investment companies and individuals, including venture capitalists, private equity firms and angel investors, who can lead investments at the forefront.
