Fireside Ventures announces close of second fund at Rs 863 cr

Fireside Ventures, a multi-stage venture fund investing across early growth stages of businesses,  has closed its second fund, Fireside Fund II, at Rs 863 crore or $118 million. 

Speaking to YourStory, Kanwaljit Singh, Founder and Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures, said that changing consumer behaviour in India has increased digital reach and increased adoption in several brands. 

"If you look at our portfolio, we cater to everything - from work from home, to cook from home to fitness from home. Brands are going to be built on tech and content," he said.

Of the 18 investments from Fireside Fund I, six companies, including boAt and MamaEarth, have crossed over Rs 100 crore in revenue. boAt is expecting to cross Rs 1000 crore in revenues in FY 2021, and Fireside has already made a partial exit after Warburg Pincus invested $100 million in the audio company. 

"Brands have to leverage technology and data analytics, along with content, to offer even more relevant and personalised offerings to consumers," said Vinay Singh, Co-founder and Partner, Fireside. 

The Fireside Fund II has marquee investors such as Fund of Funds for Start -ups ( FFS), operated by SIDBI under the aegis of GOI’s initiative “Start-up India Action Plan”,  Investment Corporation of Dubai, Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF, Bajaj Holdings and Investment Limited, ITC Limited, L’OREAL, Pidilite Group, Premji Invest, and a large US university endowment. 

Fireside will invest in 15-20 consumer brand start-ups while continuing to keep its focus on digital-first brands. 

Around 25 percent of its limited partners (LPs) are from across the world. The rest are from India with 30 percent of them returning as LPs in the second fund. 

“We are now eager to go all out and partner with young Indian entrepreneurs who are creating exciting new digital-first brands across the consumption spectrum, and are consciously building brands that focus on good for consumers and good for the world," said Kanwal.  

Fireside Fund II received investment interest from over 1500+ companies so far, and has evaluated over 300 of them before making the four investments. The Fund II portfolio companies to date are – Fable Street, SARVA Yoga, Gynoveda, and Slurrp Farm.

The first fund was Rs 340 crores in size ($50 million), and was announced in early 2018. They received investment interest from over 2,000 companies, and evaluated over 400 of them before making the 18 investments. The deal pipeline was across the consumer wallet. About 95 percent of the investible corpus of Fund I has been deployed, and the remaining 5 percent is reserved for follow-ons.