India's Fireside reaches $28m first close on debut fund
Fireside Ventures, an Indian VC firm set up by Helion Venture Partners co-founder Kanwaljit Singh (pictured), has reached a first close of INR1.8 billion ($28 million) on its debut fund.
LPs include WestBridge Capital and family offices such as Wipro Group chairman Azim Premji’s PremjiInvest and former Marico CEO Harsh Mariwala’s Sharrp Ventures. The firm plans to close the fund at INR3 billion within the next six months.
Singh started Fireside in 2014 after leaving Helion, which he founded alongside Rahul Chandra, Ashish Gupta and Sanjeev Aggarwal in 2006 after stints at Hindustan Unilever, Intel and Carlyle Group. Though the firm began as a family office, Singh has recently moved to build the team, hiring entrepreneur and fellow Unilever alumnus Vinay Singh as principal and adding specialist advisors for branding and packaging, among other business areas.
Fireside’s investments to date include online tea retailer Vahdam Teas and medical research and analytics company The Healthy Billion. The new fund will invest in consumer-oriented start-ups at the seed and Series A stage. Initial investments will be no higher than INR10 million per company, with follow-on investments of up to INR150 million considered.
Over the past few years, several senior investment professionals have left Helion to found their own investment firms. In 2015, partners Alok Goyal, Rahul Chowdhri and Ritesh Banglani departed, later launching VC firm Stellaris Venture Partners. Stellaris reached a first close of $50 million on its debut fund earlier this year. Fireside has made an LP commitment to the fund along with the International Finance Corporation and domestic IT and business consulting giant Infosys.
Last month, Chandra announced that he would raise a $100 million fund focused on financial technology known as Unitary Helion. Chandra will retain his existing portfolio management responsibilities at Helion. Aggarwal and Gupta are still with Helion, managing its existing portfolio, but are also serving as advisors to Unitary Helion.
More on South Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.