How are Fireside Ventures Changing the Indian Startup Ecosystem?

The world of the startup ecosystem is incomplete without the ventures that act as the support system for the entrepreneurs. Venture Capital firms are the only ones who are helping the Indian startups to grow. Now, as more and more entrepreneurs come up with their ideas that do tend to revolutionize a particular sector, it is high time that these companies acquire the credits and recognition they deserve.

Amongst the venture capitals, one of the most impactful Venture Capital is Fireside Ventures. This Venture Capital has been taking giant strides in the world of the startup ecosystem and hopefully, will lead it to the path of betterment! Let’s have a sneak-peek into the story of Fireside Ventures and see How Fireside Ventures Changing the Indian Startup Ecosystem?

Quick Facts - Fireside Ventures

The Story of Fireside Ventures

Almost about two years ago, Fireside Ventures had closed its first fund with an initial corpus of INR 340 crore and started investing exclusively in young Indian consumer brand startups. Well, for the founder Kanwal Singh, this is a way to back those ventures that will take the Indian narrative to the world. Now, as Indian startups have been performing exceedingly well in the big stage, somehow, the credit goes to these Venture Capital firms who has been working tirelessly to ensure that the startups does not face the issues that the companies had to face in the late twentieth century.

As per the founder, the team of Fireside Ventures is big believers in the emerging consumer brands and what’s happening to that story not just in India, but also in the global stage. Mr. Singh had quit Helion Venture Partners in 2014, this was a tech-focused venture capital firm that he had co-founded. The present company that he has been working in, Fireside Ventures started as his family office in 2015 and became a Venture Capital firm in 2017. Now, almost after 2 to 3 years, he is happy to witness a general emergence of brands that are born in India and are made for the world.

As per Mr. Singh, these brands, whose product have found their way into the houses of commoners in the United States and the United Kingdom, have taking the Indian story to the global markets and the result are very exciting for companies like Fireside Ventures!

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Mission of Fireside Ventures

The main agenda of Fireside Ventures is to initially invest in around 25 ventures that could become an iconic brand in 10-15 years. AS per, Kannan Sitaram, the venture partner at the firm, some 1,400 prospects had come in contact with the team and out of which, 350 were assessed, and the team of Fireside Ventures detailed diligence on 140 and made 18 investments. As per Mr. Kannan, these ventures not only represent emerging trends but, also the intersection of the trends.

Funding of Fireside Ventures

The company usually makes investments of $4 to $5 million across pre-Series A and Series A stages. In 2019, had raised around $60 million for its second fund, and had a target corpus of $100 million in total. The fund is officially named as Fireside Fund II and is anchored by Indian and Global investors and institutions. In August 2019, the Fireside Venture secured an undisclosed sum of money from the French personal care company L’Oreal in September 2019.

Funding Raised by Fireside Ventures

As per Mr. Singh, the second round is comprised of the ideology and aims to double down on investments into young millennial brands and help them scale the brand reach across its target segment. In 2019, he had cited that the company is starting to see credible opportunities for Indian brands to go global and the team had witnessed a lot of interest from domestic and global investors including family offices, strategies, larger institutions, etc.

He also pointed out that the Fireside portfolio will look to expand into newer brands across segments like super-foods, personalized beauty, fashion, and personal care. The company had a corpus of INR 340 crore and was backed by fast-moving consumer goods brands like Unilever Ventures, Emami Ltd, ITC, etc.

Many prominent investors like Premji Invest, Westbridge Capital, Mariwala Family Office, Sanjiv Goenka Family Office, and Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise Investment Office had invested in the first fund of the company.

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An insight into the Fireside Ventures

The company was founded by a team lead by consumer industry veteran Mr. Singh and the team comprised of experienced campaigners like Vinay Singh and V.S. Kannan in 2017. Till now, in a short period, it has already made investments across segments like personal care, processed foods, lifestyle, and home products.

The companies that have benefited by Fireside Ventures are numerous, the prominent ones being Yoga Bar, Samosa Singh, Bombay Shaving Co., Mama Earth, and Vahdam Teas. Well, one of Fireside’s early investment Kwik 24, was acquired by BigBasket in 2018, this shows the impact of the Venture Capital firms in raising a startup.

For its first fund, the company has claimed to have received investment interest from around 2,000 companies. Apart from that, around 90% of the investible corpus of fund 1 have already been deployed and the remaining 10% is reserved for the follow-ons. Amidst the closing of the second fund, Fireside also announced its newest portfolio brand Gynoveda, this is Ayurvedic personal care that is premised on personal health. This company also claims to have created the world’s first-period bot, which helps diagnose menstrual issues and then prescribe a personalized regime of Ayurvedic supplements to help alleviate menstrual cycles.

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Fireside Ventures: Changing Startup Ecosystem?

Fireside has been helping the Indian startups to make a name for themselves in a populated circuit. By helping them in every step, the team has been a prolific helper for the startups that were vulnerable to the closure of their ideas. Now, with the help of Fireside Ventures, they can freely implement their ideas and help the Indian startup ecosystem to be the change-maker!