Godrej To Invest INR 100 Cr In Consumer Startups-Focused Fund Early Spring

Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) will invest INR 100 Cr to anchor the early stage fund Early Spring, set up by Spring Marketing Capital.

The new fund will have a corpus of INR 300 Cr and will invest between INR 5 Cr and INR 20 Cr in startups between the seed and pre-Series A stages. Further, GCPL will offer its expertise and experience to help portfolio founders.

Omar Momin, head of M&A at GCPL, told ET, “The mandate of the fund is to have a specific focus on categories such as home and personal care and health and wellness, which is also the broad area and purpose for Godrej as well.”

Further, Momin said that GCPL plans to nominate some of its employees as partners to the startups the fund invests in to share the company’s experience in areas such as marketing and distribution and to learn from startups as well.

“We will have a window through the investment and boards of these companies to understand how they are progressing and share our experiences in areas that are particularly common in consumer branding,” Momin added. 

Founded by Raja Ganapathy, Arun Iyer and Vineet Gupta, Spring Marketing Capital closed its first round at INR 150 Cr and continues to invest in companies at the Series A level and beyond. It has invested in Purplle, Bewakoof, Juicy Chemistry, Smiles.ai and Mosiac Wellness so far.

Further, it provides consulting services to BYJU’S, Urban Company, Tata 1mg and Wakefit, among others. 

Godrej’s move comes at a time when FMCG players such as Wipro and Unilever have launched venture funds to invest in early-stage consumer brands working in India.

For instance, Wipro Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Wipro Limited, announced the closing of its $150 Mn Fund II in January 2020. Similarly, Unilever has Unilevel Ventures, which has invested in Indian startups such as CureFit, DealShare, HealthifyMe, Khatabook, Milkbasket, Plum and Shop101.

Godrej is reportedly looking to create a portfolio of 15-20 startups with the venture fund, though having partnered with Spring Marketing Capital would not entail the same amount of autonomy as would come with an independent fund.

Godrej’s INR 100 Cr investment via Early Spring also comes when funding raised by Indian startups has seen a sharp decline. As per Inc42’s ‘Indian Tech Startup Funding Report, Q1 2023’, Indian startups raised only about $3 Bn in the first quarter of 2023, down 75% compared to the year-ago period.

However, over the past three months or so, many startup funds have either been closed or launched, signalling better times ahead. The likes of Speciale Invest, Iron Pillar and pi Ventures announced the launch of new funds in the past two weeks.

As per Inc42 data, India’s VC firms, angel networks and venture debt firms have already announced or closed funds worth $2.27 Bn in 2023 so far. after investors announced or raised 126 funds worth $18.3 Bn in 2022.