SUMMARY
Gynoveda is a women’s wellness startup
Fireside Closed Its Fund I in February 2018
Its portfolio includes boAt audio, Mama Earth, Vahdam Teas
Early-stage venture capital firm, Fireside Ventures, on November 19, announced its first investment from its Fund II. The VC firm will be investing in a women’s wellness brand Gynoveda that makes ayurvedic products for menstrual health.
Founded in 2017 by Rachana Gupta, Vishal Gupta and Dr. Aarti Patil, is a healthtech startup that has integrated ayurveda with technology to develop a “Period Bot” for women for self-diagnosis of specific menstrual issues. After the test, the company also connects the woman with a homeopathic doctor to resolve the issue.
In addition to this, Fireside Ventures has also announced the first close of its $100 Mn Fund II at approximately $60 Mn. The company will be funding consumer brands that have a run rate of at least an average of INR 40 Lakh per month.
Managing partner of Fireside Ventures, Kanwaljit Singh, said that the consumer brand startup ecosystem is evolving rapidly and the opportunities to build large consumer brand is also growing at the same pace across multiple sectors.
“The second fund aims to double down on the success of the first fund and follow the same strategy of investing in exciting young millennial brands and helping them with a strong ecosystem support. We are also starting to see credible opportunities for Indian brands to go global,” Singh added.
Fireside’s Fund II will invest $4 Mn to $5 Mn in consumer brands across sectors such as food and beverages, personal care, lifestyle and home products. For this fund, the VC has got a commitment to $60 Mn from global investors, institutions and French personal care company L’Oréal.
The Fireside I Successes
Fireside had closed its Fund I of $50 Mn in February of last year with investments from Premji Invest, Westbridge Capital, Mariwala Family Office, Unilever Ventures, Emami, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Family Office, Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise Investment Office and ITC.
With Fund 1, Fireside invested in 18 companies, out of the 2000 applications it has received. The company claimed that it has already utilised 90% of the fund corpus and the remaining 10% will be reinvested in the Fund I portfolio, which includes companies like boAt audio, Mama Earth, Vahdam Teas, Design Café, Alpha Vector and Yoga Bar.
