Fireside Ventures makes first close of Fund-II at $60 Mn

Around three months after announcing its plans of raising $100 million worth second fund, early-stage venture capital fund 'Fireside Ventures, mainly focused on consumer brands, has already made the first closure of its Fund-II at $60 million.

Backed by FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brands such as Unilever Ventures, Emami Ltd and ITC Ltd in the first fund, Fireside has received commitments of about $60 million for this Fund-II.

Importantly, the aforementioned first fund large investors have committed to this second fund and the VC fund has placed its debut bet of the second fund on menstrual health focused personal care brand-Gynoveda, said an ET report.

The Bengaluru-based firm would utilize the initial capital of about $1 million and take 20% ownership along with offering capabilities to help these businesses build a Rs 100 crore brand.

Founded in 2017 by Kanwaljit Singh, Fireside had 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.

So far, the VC fund has invested in about 18 companies and has $48.5 million assets under management.

Its portfolio companies include Azani Sports, boAt, MamaEarth, Design Cafe, Bombay Shaving Company, Yogabar, Kapiva, and Vahdam Teas, among others.

According to Fireside's official website, the VC fund manages a corpus of Rs 3.4 billion to be invested in consumer brand startups in multiple funding rounds, from Seed to Series A funding.