Marico family office Sharrp Ventures generates 5X returns: Harsh Mariwala

Sharrp Ventures, the family investment office of Marico Founder and Chairman Harsh Mariwala, has generated 5X returns on its investments, including in startups.

At the second edition of Techsparks Mumbai, YourStory's flagship startup-tech event, Mariwala recalled when his son, Rishabh Mariwala, started the family office to diversify their investments.

This helped the Marico founder to invest in new businesses as Mariwala was ploughing back the money earned from the investments back into his business.

Mariwala was also very clear that they did not want to invest in precious metals or real estate and wanted the family investment office to support entrepreneurship.

Founded in 2014 by Rishabh Mariwala, Sharrp Ventures invests in public and private companies. Among the private companies, it has predominantly invested in startups like Mamaearth, Nykaa, Zouk, and Bira, to name a few.

Mariwala said Sharrp Ventures' big focus is towards D2C companies, given their background in FMCG and a much better understanding of such consumer-facing businesses.

“We mentor many of our investee companies and also [the] Marico system be it areas like production, distribution or branding helps them,” Mariwala said.

Sharrp Investments typically invests around $1-3 million at the early stage in largely consumer-focused businesses.

He also admitted that there were some failures in the investments and felt it was okay. “I don’t think there is any single individual in this world who has succeeded without failing because failure is like learning,” he remarked.

Sharrp Ventures has assets under management in excess of $300 million.