Fireside Ventures raises $253 million for its fourth fund to invest in more consumer startups

(L to R): Kanwaljit Singh, Dipanjan Basu, Kannan Sitaram, Vinay Singh and Adarsh Menon

Fireside Ventures, a consumer-focused venture capital fund, on December 2 said it has raised Rs 2,265 crore ($253 million), in its Fund IV. The latest fund was a departure from Fireside’s earlier playbook where it was majorly indexed on domestic limited partners (LPs) or sponsors.

Moneycontrol was first to report about the shift in LP base and Fireside’s latest fundraise in April.

“This time, 50% of the capital came from global LPs and the remaining was from domestic ones,” said Kanwaljit Singh, Founder & Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures.

Fireside Fund IV has secured commitments from US University Endowments; global sovereign funds like Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), he said.

Additionally, other LPs such as HarbourVest, Waterfield Advisors, Fidelity International and other consumer giants and family offices like Sharrp Ventures, Mirabilis, Emami Limited and founders from across the board also invested in the fund as LPs.

This is Fireside’s largest fund yet. Founded in 2017, Fireside Ventures raised around $52 million for its first fund in 2018 then increased the corpus to $118 million in 2021 for its next fund.

The Bengaluru-based fund went on to raise $225 million for its third fund in 2022. The capital raised in the current fund is largely similar to what it raised in its Fund III as it looks to stay away from deployment pressure and looks to generate outside returns.

With a sharp focus on consumer brands, Fireside invests across categories such as Health & Wellness, Food and Beverages, Beauty & Personal Care, Lifestyle, Home Products & Fashion.

It has backed Honasa Consumer, Boat, The Sleep Company, Frubon, The Good Bug, Slurrp Farm, Sweet Karam Coffee, Inito, Pilgrim, Well Being, Moxie, NewMe, Traya and many more.

“The environment around us is evolving fast, but the principles of building enduring brands remain the same: clarity of purpose, a sharp view of the consumer, and laser sharp focus on execution,” Kanwaljit Singh said.

With Fund IV, Fireside’s total assets under management (AUM) till date stands at INR 5,300crore / USD 650 million.