Sauce.vc Marks Final Close Of Third Fund At INR 365 Cr

Consumer-focused venture capital firm Sauce.vc, which counts Mokobara, Whole Truth Foods, Supertails and Bare Anatomy among its portfolio companies, has reportedly marked the final close of its third fund at INR 365 Cr (nearly $43.6 Mn).

As per ET’s report, citing founder and managing partner Manu Chandra, the fund was closed against a target corpus of INR 250 Cr. 

The VC fund has raised capital from Chona family, Kris Gopalakrishnan’s Investment Office Pratithi Investment, Mirabilis Investment Trust, Sarda Group, Singularity Ventures and Saison Capital among others, Chandra told Inc42.

Chandra confirmed to Inc42 that 95% of its capital was raised from domestic investors, and include top consumer focused family offices, fund of funds, corporates and HNIs.

Sauce.vc, founded in 2019 by Chandra, floated its third VC fund with a target to raise INR 250 Cr ($30 Mn) in May. Back then, it was looking to invest in 15-16 early stage consumer brands. 

Chandra confirmed that the Delhi-NCR-based VC firm received demand for subscriptions amounting to about INR 700 Cr, as per the report.

“We’ll continue to take pre seed, pre revenue bets… with average cheque size of around INR 5 Cr, and we will reserve about 75% of the fund for follow-ons,” he added.

In June alone, Ahmedabad-based ice cream brand Hocco raised INR 100 Cr ($12 Mn) in a fresh funding round led by Sauce.vc and its promoter group Chona family, while beverage startup Rockit raised INR 6 Cr in a pre-seed funding round led by Sauce.vc, along with participation from Roadies fame Rannvijay Singha.

This third fund of Sauce.vc cushions the blooming consumer brands that have been gaining the likes of investors. India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) market, which is likely to reach a size of $100 Bn by 2025, has grown exponentially in the last few years.

Of this, fashion and clothing startups have the highest potential and are expected to grow to $43.2 Bn by 2025, according to an Inc42 report.

(The story has been updated based on the comments from Sauce.vc founder Manu Chandra.)

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