Fireside Ventures' consumer brand startups cross $1 bn in total market-cap

The venture capital firm founded by top investor Kanwaljit Singh has also closed its second fund Fireside Fund II at Rs 863 crore

Fireside Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by top investor Kanwaljit Singh, has closed its second fund Fireside Fund II at Rs 863 crore. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the business of Fireside’s portfolio of  22 consumer brand startups, which have crossed a total portfolio market-cap of $1 billion. A digital-first approach played a key role for them to reach out to the consumers. The pandemic further validated the Fireside investment thesis of investing in digital-first consumer brands.

“We saw interesting pivotal points (during the pandemic) which benefitted a lot of our brands. We saw consumer behaviour shifting more towards e-commerce and engagement through digital platforms, whether it was work or fitness and healthcare from home,” said Kanwaljit Singh, founder and managing partner at Fireside Ventures. “Technology as a platform on which these brands are getting built is becoming well established. While in 2020, there has been a lot of disruption in the world, overall we saw some positive tailwinds across our portfolio. We want to create digital-first iconic brands from India.”

Fireside was of the view that the over-arching trends and shifts seen in consumer demand for an extra dose of "wellness & goodness” in the products and services they consume, are here to stay. As D2C (direct to customer) and e-commerce become more mainstream, the brands can leverage technology and data analytics to offer even more relevant and personalised offerings to the consumers.

The Fireside Fund II has marquee investors such as Fund of Funds for Startups ( FFS) operated by SIDBI under the aegis of government’s initiative “Start-up India Action Plan” and Investment Corporation of Dubai. The other investors include 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. “We are equally proud of all the founders from our portfolio companies, it is indeed remarkable to see their sheer guts and grit last year as they pivoted, planned, and programmed themselves to survive and be successful as well,” said Singh.“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.”

Fireside Fund II has received investment interest from over 1500 companies so far. It deeply evaluated over 300 of them before making the 4 investments. The Fund II portfolio companies to date are – Fable Street, Sarva Yoga, Gynoveda, and Slurrp Farm.

Sarva is India’s fastest growing yoga-based wellness ecosystem. The brand founded by millennial yogi Sarvesh Shashi is changing the way everyone looks at yoga. The brand is also backed by global celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and well-known investors Mark Mastrov and Alex Rodriguez. Sarva and its women-centric brand Diva Yoga, claim to have a global digital reach of over 200 million people.

Fireside has also backed firms such as electronics brand boAt and Bombay Shaving Company. This month boAt raised $100 million from an affiliate of global PE player Warburg Pincus to create and support a manufacturing ecosystem under the Make-in-India initiative. This will enable the company to manufacture its own products in India. According to sources, with the new fundraise – one of the highest by a start-up in the direct-to-consumer space – the boAt is now valued at approximately $280 million.