Multi-stage venture fund Fireside Ventures announces the close of their second fund (Fireside Fund II) at INR 863 crore which translate to $118 million approximately. The Fireside Fund II has investors such as Fund of Funds for Startups ( 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.

The fund largely invests across early growth stages of businesses with a focus on consumer brands and Fireside says that the pandemic further validated their investment thesis of backing digital-first consumer brands.

Kanwaljit Singh, Founder & Managing Partner Fireside Ventures said, “We are indeed very delighted to get the support of our existing investors and we extend a very warm welcome to all our new investors. At Fireside Ventures, 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. A large number of our portfolio companies saw positive tailwinds during and post the pandemic. “

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

Fireside Fund II received investment interest from over 1500+ companies so far and 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. Since inception Fireside has invested in 22 brands so far which includes boAt, Mamaearth, Vahdam Teas, Yoga Bar, Samosa Singh, SLAY Coffee, Design Café, Bombay Shaving Company, Magic Crate, Pipa Bella, Azani, BluSpider, The Ayurveda Experience, Kapiva Ayurveda, Tasty Tales, AnKa SumMor and Ninety One Cycles(previously known as Frog Cycles) and Kwik 24.

Launched in 2017, Fireside closed its first fund in February 2018 with a corpus of Rs 340 crore (~$50 million). They received investment interest from over 2,000 companies and deeply evaluated over 400 of them before making the 18 investments. About 95 percent of the investible corpus of Fund I has been deployed and the remaining 5 percent is reserved for follow-ons.

First Published:Jan 20, 2021 4:56 PM IST