India's Fireside closes first fund at $52m
Fireside Ventures, an Indian VC firm set up by Helion Venture Partners co-founder Kanwaljit Singh (pictured), has closed its debut fund at INR3.4 billion ($52 million).
LPs include Westbridge Capital, Unilever Ventures, and Indian conglomerate Emami Group, along with family offices of Indian entrepreneurs such as Azim Premji and Sunil Munjal. Fireside plans to invest in up to 25 consumer brand businesses over the next three years.
Singh started Fireside as a family office in 2014 after leaving Helion, which he founded alongside Rahul Chandra, Ashish Gupta and Sanjeev Aggarwal in 2006. Since last year the firm has been transitioning to a more formalized VC model: in addition to launching a fund Singh has also added Vinay Singh, an entrepreneur and former colleague at Unilever, as principal, and brought in specialist advisors for branding and packaging, among other business areas.
Fireside is focused on consumer-oriented start-ups at the seed and Series A stage, which it plans to support with growth capital, along with access to its in-house sector specialists and partner network. Its portfolio includes protein bar maker Yoga Bars, online tea retailer Vahdam Teas and bicycle maker Frog Bikes.
“The union of digital proliferation and demand for consumer brands is creating new opportunities and business models that will allow multiple new brands to be built in India more efficiently and in faster timeframes,” said Singh in a statement. “We see this as a big opportunity and stand committed to introduce, mentor and promote brands in this space.”
Singh is one of several Helion alumni that have left the GP to found their own investment firms. In 2015, partners Alok Goyal, Rahul Chowdhri and Ritesh Banglani departed to form Stellaris Venture Partners, whose debut fund reached a first close of $50 million last year and is targeting an overall corpus of $100 million.
Chandra, Aggarwal and Gupta are still managing Helion’s existing portfolio, but Chandra launched a financial technology fund known as Unitary Helion last year and Aggarwal has joined Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to start tech-focused fund The Fundamentum Partnership. Both Aggarwal and Gupta are also advisors to Unitary Helion.
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