Fireside Ventures raising $100 Mn worth second fund

Early-stage venture capital fund Fireside Ventures, mainly focused on consumer brands, is raising $100 million for its second fund.

The corpus of the second fund is expected to be 2X that of the first fund, and the latest proceeds will be used in backing founders, who are creating brands catering to the emerging millennial consumers, said a Mint report.

Backed by FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brands such as Unilever Ventures, Emami Ltd and ITC Ltd in the first fund, Fireside is expected to announce the early closing of its second fund in a month.

Founded in 2017, the Bengaluru-based VC firm closed its first fund worth Rs 340 crore in February 2018. Marquee investors, including Westbridge Capital, Marico Chairman Harsh Mariwala’s family office, Emami, Hero Enterprise Investment Office, ITC, and the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Family Office, had invested in Fireside Ventures’ first fund.

The venture capital firm has already invested close to Rs 200 crore. It aims to create 25 iconic consumer brands with revenue of around Rs 1,000 crore per portfolio firm over the next 15 years. It primarily invests in seed to Series A rounds.

Fireside has invested in about 18 companies including Azani Sports, boAt, MamaEarth, Design Cafe, Bombay Shaving Company, and Vahdam Teas amongst others. So far, the firm has $48.5 million assets under management.

DSG Consumer Partners and Sixth Sense Ventures are also focusing on the same segments as Fireside Ventures.