Fireside sees a consumer brand boom, invests in six more Startups

BENGALURU: Fireside Ventures, a fund focused on early-stage consumer brands, has made six new investments from its first ₹340-crore fund and onboarded Myntra’s chief financial officer, Dipanjan Basu, as a partner to further strengthen its leadership team.
The new investments are in Azani Sports, Bog Orchid, The Ayurveda Experience, Kapiva Ayurveda, Tasty Tales and AnKa SumMor Foods. These take Fireside’s portfolio companies to 18, including Bombay Shaving Company, MamaEarth, Vahdam Teas and Yoga Bar, as it bets on emerging startups that are challenging incumbent consumer companies and creating a niche for themselves.

India is on the cusp of a boom in consumerism, anchored by the growth of the upper-middle income and high-income segments. Fireside expects this macro trend will see the emergence of several new brands to cater to the large and growing millennial and Gen-Z population.

“We believe this segment of population is looking for different sensibilities and product choices from their brands which startups are best suited to fulfil. And this, coupled with the rapid growth in the infrastructure of ‘go-to-market’ options, both digital and organised retail, makes it a unique and exciting ‘point-in-time’ opportunity for these brands,” said Kanwaljit Singh, managing partner at Fireside. The fund has evaluated more than 1,400 prospective startups in the consumer brands space over the past two years.


The fund is also building an ecosystem of strategic advisers and a support network from leading lights in the consumer brand space to mentor new entrepreneurs, helping them with business strategy, branding, hiring, corporate governance, funding and policies.

Fireside’s advisory board comprises Amazon India country manager Amit Agarwal, Marico chairman Harsh Mariwala and Bain & Company India chairman Sri Rajan.