Funds managed
| Fund name | Asset Class | License |
| Fireside Ventures Fund I and Fund II | Early Stag Consumer space | SEBI AIF Cat 1 |
About the AMC
- Anchored by a slew of marquee investors, including Premji Invest, Westbridge Capital, Mariwala Family Office, Unilever Ventures, Emami Ltd., RP-Sanjiv Goenka Family Office, Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise Investment Office and ITC Ltd., Fireside manages a corpus of Rs 3.4 Bn to be invested in exciting consumer brand startups in multiple rounds, from Seed to Series A funding.
Key staff
- Kanwal Singh (Founder and Managing Partner)- Kanwal has been passionate about mentoring and helping build consumer brands in India, and has been involved as an investor with brands like Paper Boat, ID Fresh, Epigamia, and Licious, before starting Fireside. He has been investing in the early stage ecosystem in India for the past 17 years, first as a Director at Carlyle Group, India, and later as a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Helion Venture Partners. Prior to his investing career, Kanwal spent over 13 years in consumer marketing with Hindustan Unilever, and Intel India.
- Vinay Singh (Partner)- With 7+ years at Hindustan Unilever as Marketing Manager for a multi-crore brand, extensive expertise in digital marketing at McKinsey & Co., and Bankbazaar.com, Vinay has a unique perspective on the intersection between consumer brands and technology. He has also been an entrepreneur, as the founder and CEO of Stepni.com, which was acquired by Quikr.
- VS Kannan Sitaram (Venture Partner)- Kannan has spent 36+ years across Sales, Marketing, and Strategy. He has been associated with Unilever, both, in India, and overseas. He has also been COO of Dabur India, and CEO of Innovative Foods. His ability to understand the finer nuances of brand-building at different stages of the brand evolution makes him ideally suited to the role of partner and mentor to young entrepreneurs and brand champions.
- Dipanjan Basu (Partner and CFO)- Dipanjan has over 17 years’ experience ranging across the e-commerce consumer space, digital brands, the start-up ecosystem, Investments and M&A apart from his deep knowledge in Finance, Technology and Operations. Prior to Fireside Ventures, in his role as CFO of Myntra and Jabong, he played a key role in driving a balanced and profitable growth and creating innovative brand building structures such as the Brand Accelerator and House of Brands. Before Myntra, he was the Chief Finance & Operating Officer for Wipro’s Digital & Consulting Business where he was responsible for setting up and building new businesses, as well as helming M&As and investments in digital startups. He was also part of the team setting up Wipro Ventures, the $100Mn fund for tech and digital businesses.
Investment Philosophy (for firm)
Things they look for in a startup are:
- A product that is solving the problem for the consumer
- Solution is a differentiator
- Whether the product is brandable
- The founder themselves should be highly qualified.
Media
Title: Fireside Venture Fund II Raises $60 Million, Source: ET now, Date: 21st November 2019
Fireside Venture Fund II raised $60 million and targets for $100 million. VS Kannan says lots of exciting things are happening in the consumer space and two themes they are looking at are good for you food and children’s business.
Things they look for in a startup are:
- A product that is solving the problem for the consumer
- Solution is a differentiator
- Whether the product is brandable
- The founder themselves should be highly qualified.
They do not like business propositions who are looking for getting rich quickly.
Title: This Early-Stage Investment Firm with Fire in its Belly to Fund India’s Consumer Startups is Doing so at a Fiery Pace, Date: 13th December 2018
https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/324748
In its first fund, Fireside Ventures raised INR 340 cr this year. Sitaram gave in some details about how the firm wishes to allocate this money.
“These are funds for specialists and their company to invest in consumer space, in consumer products and where they see a branding opportunity – that’s the scope of the fund,” explains Sitaram.Sectors to watch out for are food, recreation and children.
Title: L’Oreal arm invests in local VC fund Fireside, source: moneycontrol article, Date: 5th September 2019
French personal care and beauty products major L’Oreal has made investment in a local early stage venture capital fund of Fireside Ventures.The investment has been made through the French company’s corporate venture capital fund ‘Bold business opportunities for L’Oreal development’ launched last December.
“Together with L’Oreal we intend to scout and co- create a new generation of innovative beauty products, built in India for global consumption and in faster timeframes,” Fireside managing partner Kanwaljit Singh said.
Understand it better with Mr. Kannan Sitaram,Entrepreneur India video, 14th Dec 2019
Kannan says 45 percentage of the total investee promoters are women in their portfolio.
He further adds the consumer segment they are targeting is different. It is a consumer which is aware of what he/she is buying-who reads what is written at the back of the product and googles the ingredients in it, does not mind paying a higher price for great products and which is not on the radar of big consumer companies.
Analyst questions
- What is your investment philosophy?
- Why only consumer space given the advent of fintech, Saas and so many other sectors?
- How do you decide when to exit an investee company and whether the exit mode is right for it?
- Where do you add value in your portfolio companies?
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