India’s Fireside Ventures announced on Wednesday that it had raised $225 million for its third fund to back domestic consumer brands, becoming the latest venture capital company to solidify its bet on Asia’s third-largest economy even as startup funding is drying up globally.
The early-stage investor stated that the new fund, estimated to be valued at 18.30 billion Indian rupees, would invest in roughly 25–30 Indian startups with a focus on the consumer goods, lifestyle, and health and wellness categories.
The fund’s backers include Investment Corp of Dubai, India’s largest public-sector lender State Bank of India, Indian cigarettes to consumer goods producer ITC Ltd and Premji Invest, the family office of Wipro Ltd founder Azim Premji.
This year, several well-known VC firms, such as Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, raised significant sums of funds for India and Southeast Asia to pursue high-growth companies in developing markets.
However, they have been reluctant to write checks out of concern that a worldwide economic slowdown could be brought on by persistent inflation and rising interest rates.
According to the most recent data from investment tracker Tracxn, funding for Indian startups declined 80% over the previous year and 57% over the prior three months in the September quarter.
In January 2021, Fireside raised $118 million for its second fund. Its portfolio includes the personal care products retailer Mamaearth and the electronics brand boAt, which is getting ready to go public.
The VC firm has a portfolio of 31 companies and $395 million in assets under management.
