Plant-Based Brand Earthful Secures ₹26 Crore Led by Fireside & V3 Ventures

Earthful, a clean-label plant-based nutrition brand, has raised INR 26 Crore in its Pre-Series A funding round led by Fireside Ventures and V3 Ventures. Atrium Angels also participated in the round, reflecting strong investor confidence in Earthful’s fast-growing presence in the nutrition category and its long-term market potential.

Founded by sisters and IIT alumni Veda Gogineni and Sudha Gogineni, Earthful is building natural solutions designed to make nutrition less intimidating, with a strong focus on menopausal women’s health needs. They are the first Indian brand to make multivitamins customised for menopausal women combining vitamins, minerals, and herbs. They have also innovated in the fast - growing protein category with only 6-7 ingredients from only plants.

In the last two years, Earthful has built a customer base of over 2 lakh consumers, driven by strong repeat purchases and growing trust in its approach of the “Nothing but Nature” philosophy. Today, its portfolio includes daily multivitamins formulated to bridge nutrition gaps across age groups, multi-flavoured Plant Protein, along with targeted solutions for Skin, Hair, and Sleep.

The funds raised will help Earthful deepen its product portfolio for women’s health, along with team expansion in Hyderabad and Mumbai to support its next phase of growth.

Commenting on the fundraise, Veda Gogineni, Co founder, Earthful, says, “Sudha and I started Earthful to challenge the unclean nutrition industry which was harming consumers rather than doing good. With this investment, we want to expand our portfolio, grow deeper into Bharat and build a movement where people know that their nutrition shouldn’t be intimidating, and should have nothing, but nature in it!”

Arjun Vaidya, Co-founder, V3 ventures said, "I’ve known Earthful’s story since 2021. I believe India is going through an important moment in preventive supplements, and what drew us to Earthful was their pursuit of honest nutrition - simple labels, transparent formulations, and a mission rooted in Nothing but Nature. Customers are looking for this now. We also appreciated their focused commitment to women’s wellness. My mother has been a customer of their plant protein for years because she felt it truly spoke to her needs. We’re very excited about Veda and Sudha’s clarity of vision and where this journey goes from here."

Meanwhile, Ankur Khaitan, Principal, Fireside Ventures further commented, “At Fireside, women’s health has been a core focus of our investment thesis and menopause is one of the fastest growing white spaces in this category. Earthful embodies this opportunity with Veda and Sudha’s deep consumer insight and authentic vision to redefine how women experience this journey. We are thrilled to partner with them on their mission to bring care and confidence to millions of women.”

Earthful, previously featured on Shark Tank, and raised USD 1 million from marquee angels and family offices. The brand has grown over 3X in the last financial year, driven primarily by repeat purchases and strong word of mouth.

About Earthful

Earthful is all about clean, plant-based nutrition that comes only from nature and everyone can trust. Every product is made with ingredients you know and can understand upon reading the label. No complicated additives or artificial junk. We believe in transparency and educating people about what truly defines clean nutrition. We were also the first ones to create an all-natural Multivitamin, specifically for menopausal women. Our mission is to ensure that nutrition comes from nothing but nature and is no longer intimidating for people!

Lumikai Fund and Fireside Ventures Lead Giga Fun Studios' $2.4 Mn Seed Round to Build Next-generation Casual Games for Indian Gamers

Giga Fun Studios Team — (L-R) Rahul Shekhar, Rahul Daga, and Krishnendu Mukherjee

Bengaluru-based casual gaming startup Giga Fun Studios today announced that they have raised $2.4 Mn in Seed round led by Lumikai, India’s pioneering Gaming & Interactive Media focused VC Fund and the consumer specialists Fireside Ventures. All In Capital, Kettleborough VC and Riverwalk Holdings also participated in this round.

The company will utilise the funds to create a new benchmark in casual games built to high quality for Indian and global audiences. The founders have extensive experience building leading casual games for India and the world previously at leading developers like Zynga and m56, and will be investing heavily on curating a stellar team as a hub for “best in India” casual game developers.

They aim to focus on designing games with geo accessibility across the full game stack, including simple but compelling game loops, customised UI/UX design for domestic gamers, accessible pricing, and distribution via third party app stores. Their longer-term goal is to export the richness of Indian culture globally through casual metas, creating the King of India.

The startup is founded by a trio of seasoned game designers and developers: Krishnendu Mukherjee (Former AVP and Head of Game Design at MPL, former Lead Product Manager at Zynga), Rahul Daga (Former Director of Products Zynga, Country Head at m56 Studios), and Rahul Shekhar (Former Engineering lead at m56 Studios). The founders have collectively shipped and operated 10+ games with experience managing gaming P&L’s of $100M+.

Expressing his views on the announcement, Krishnendu Mukherjee, Co-founder & CEO, at Giga Fun Studios said, “We have been brainstorming the idea of creating a Gaming studio that caters to the Indian audience and the core problem we mutually identified was that while current dominant casual games (such as Candy Crush) are very high in quality, they haven't been able to fully unlock an Indian player base due to a lack of cultural resonance. This is additionally visible in the lack of monetization participation of the Indian player. With over 5 Bn downloads, India is one of the largest download markets for casual games. Our belief is that with the right themes and geo-specific mechanics, we will be able to crack adoption and monetization for casual games in India.”

Commenting on the investment, Justin Shriram Keeling, Founding General Partner, Lumikai said, “According to our recently released India State of Gaming 2022 report, 80% of gamers show a high proclivity to play games based on Indian IP. We believe that culture-themed casual games have the potential to unlock massive disruption in the gaming space in India. We’re excited to be partnering with Giga Fun Studios at an early stage, and look forward to supporting them with our deep gaming expertise & network on their mission to build a match3 engine that'll allow them to build high-quality games, built specifically with geo-specific mechanics, localised game loops, unique distribution and India first monetisation."

Commenting on the investment, Shreyans Gangwal, Vice President, Fireside Ventures said, “We at Fireside Ventures are excited to announce our very first investment in the gaming sector and partnering with the gaming expertise Rahul S, Krishnendu & Rahul D and bringing our expertise of consumer brands & marketing to create a class-leading casual gaming platform from India. Globally, gaming has already eclipsed movies & music by ~3x and is one of the largest and fastest emerging sectors of digital consumption. This will serve the unmet needs of Indian consumers to drive a multi-billion dollar market opportunity over the next few years. High quality, deeply localized games built on proven game formats with the right in-app purchase driven monetization are likely to be the first beneficiaries in the wave of gaming which is expected to be a $8.5bn+ market opportunity in India“. 

About Giga Fun Studios:

Giga Fun Studios is India’s newest casual gaming studio. Casual games are one of the most popular game genres all over the world and in India. The studio aims to disrupt the category, by creating engaging, high quality games that are culturally relevant for the Indian player base. The goal of the studio is to develop world class games for Indian and global audiences. The founders bring 25+ years of combined experience in building and running games as well as building high performance game development teams.

About Lumikai:

Lumikai is India’s first dedicated games and interactive media VC. The fund is building a next-generation tribe of India’s most forward-thinking, creative, and talented founders. The leadership team combines decades of strategic experience and sector knowledge while leveraging all-star local and global networks to help propel founders to success.

Lumikai has already backed some of India’s leading games companies including Bombay Play (building global hypersocial, cross-platform games), Loco (India’s leading game streaming platform), and Elo Elo (creator-led, social gaming, live streaming platform) amongst others. Lumikai is the lighthouse VC fund catalysing India’s “ripe for disruption” gaming & interactive media industries.

www.lumikai.com

About Fireside Ventures:

Launched in 2017, Fireside Ventures with the close of its Fund III is currently managing INR 3,000 crore ($395 million) of AUM with investments across digital-first consumer brands in sectors such as health & wellness, food and beverages, beauty & personal care, nutraceuticals, lifestyle and home products, etc. The Fund invests in young start-ups and supports them through their evolution by providing expertise and access to their network.

Fireside Ventures is helmed by Kanwaljit Singh – Founder & Managing Partner, Vinay Singh - Partner, Kannan Sitaram - Partner, and Dipanjan Basu - Partner. The leadership team is also supported by an thirteen-member strong and multi-dimensional investment team.

Since its inception Fireside has invested in 30+ brands that include Supertails, NatHabit, The Baker’s Dozen, Smytten, Traya, The Sleep Company, 10Club, Wellbeing Nutrition, Pilgrim, Fitterfly, Slurrp Farm, FS Life (erstwhile FableStreet), SARVA Yoga, Gynoveda, boAt, Mamaearth, Vahdam Teas, Yoga Bar, Samosa Singh, SLAY Coffee, Design Café, The Ayurveda Experience, Kapiva Ayurveda, AnKaSumMor, Ninety One Cycles (erstwhile Frog Cycles), Bombay Shaving Company, Magic Crate, Pipa Bella, Azani, BluSpider (erstwhile Bog Orchid), Tasty Tales, and Kwik 24.

Supertails.com, A Tech-enabled Pet-care Startup, Raises $10 Mn Funding Led by Fireside Ventures and Existing Investors

Supertails.com, a tech-enabled pet-care startup, raises $10 Mn funding in Series A led by Fireside Ventures and existing lead investors Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners; Aims to unlock access to a full-stack pet-care services platform for a potential $5 Bn market in India

Round also saw participation from renowned angels like Kunal Shah - Founder, Cred; Sanjay Kapoor - Founder & President, Genesis Luxury Fashion Pvt Ltd; Varun Alagh- Co-Founder and CEO, MamaEarth; Ankit Nagori - Founder, Curefoods; and Shashank Mehta - Founder & CEO, The Whole Truth Foods. 

Supertails.com, a full-stack tech-enabled pet-care startup, has raised $10 Mn in Series A funding led by Fireside Ventures alongside existing lead investors Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. The round also saw participation from renowned angels like Kunal Shah - Founder, Cred; Sanjay Kapoor - Founder & President, Genesis Luxury Fashion Pvt LTD; Varun Alagh- Co-Founder and CEO, MamaEarth; Ankit Nagori - Founder, Curefoods; and Shashank Mehta - Founder & CEO, The Whole Truth Foods.

This funding will be deployed by the company to double down on building innovative tech which includes unveiling its own app. It is also building its own D2C brand - Henlo. Additionally, Supertails.com will focus on the expansion of verticals (Vet Diets and Pet Pharmacy Channels), strengthening the supply chain, and innovating the post-sale experience.

Founded in June 2021 by a trio of pet lovers - Varun Sadana, Aman Tekriwal, and Vineet Khanna, Supertails.com aims to create a holistic pet care platform for a burgeoning Indian pet care industry which currently stands at 25% CAGR with a potential to grow to $5 Bn by 2030.

The thesis, business performance, and plans

This funding further strengthens Supertails.com’s commitment to building and leading a category of first-time pet parents by empowering them with the right resources and information. As the world stepped out of a pandemic, India's pet care market bloomed in a tough economic situation as people took to pet ownership. This was fuelled by the increased need for companionship amidst loneliness. With millennials now opting for delayed marriages and parenting, and with an increase in disposable income - pet adoption and parenting is going to see an uptick. Supertails.com wants to build for these first-time parents who need guidance and one-tap access to everything related to pet-care.

Supertails.com has clocked an ARR of INR 50 Crores in the last 18 months and aims to double down on its growth and expansion plans to achieve INR 100 Crores ARR by Mar 2023.

Commenting on the funding, Co-founders Varun Sadana, Aman Tekriwal, and Vineet Khanna, Supertails.com said “Being pet parents ourselves, we understand the hassles in the journey of pet parents. At Supertails.com, our vision is to create a platform that makes their lives easier. From providing pet nutrition to round-the-clock pet care and consultation, our aim is to build a platform that integrates products, services, and communities. In India, there has been a gradual shift from pet ownership to pet parenting and now to pet companionship. We hope to accelerate this trend with Supertails.com and create an organised and easily accessible platform, especially for first-time pet parents. With this round of funding, we want to invest in making a one-stop platform for pet parents that caters to all their needs. We are thrilled to have the support of Fireside Ventures, Saama Capital, and DSG consumer partners in this journey and aim to leverage their expertise to become the most preferred and loved pet-care platform in India."

Kanwaljit Singh, Founder and Managing Partner at Fireside Ventures added “As an early-stage consumer-focussed VC, we are always on the lookout for consumer trends which have the potential to build out resilient brands. One such emerging space is that of pet ownership across metro and tier 1 markets. And in this category, Supertails.com stands out as a unique online platform that caters from pet-care to pet indulgences in spaces like food, grooming, and fashion too. We at Fireside Ventures, believe that there is a massive untapped potential in the pet care industry and are certain that with Supertails.com’s innovative vision and the strength of their leadership team, the pet ownership industry has huge potential in the years to come.”

Ash Lilani, Managing Partner and Co-founder at Saama Capital, commented “Supertails.com is solving problems that have existed for pet parents for decades. Their expansion comes at the right time as India’s pet-care industry is on a massive growth trajectory. Excited to see what Varun, Aman, and Vineet have in store for the next growth phase.”

Deepak I. Shahdadpuri, Managing Director and Founder, DSG Consumer Partners said “India’s pet care industry is at a very early stage of its evolution. We see a very large opportunity across pet categories, including food, healthcare, toys and accessories, grooming and other services. Supertails.com is well positioned to be a leading brand in this category.”

The model and offerings

Supertails.com’s full-stack platform offers - pet supplies, online vet consultations (more than 20,000 pet consultations to date), and online behavioural training. It offers the largest assortment of 10,000+ SKUs and 200+ partner brands across pet food, treats, accessories, grooming, etc. The company also launched V-diets - the only player in the country to sell these products online..

To add to the holistic experience, a unique differentiator is a dedicated Pet Relationship Manager for every consumer who onboards the Supertails.com platform. Every consumer is assigned to a Pet Relationship Manager who guides them with all their pet-related needs and issues.

Past Funding & Team

In their Seed round, Supertails.com had raised $2.6 Mn which was led by Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Other investors included Titan Capital, Sauce VC, and Whiteboard Capital. The company currently employs 100 pet lovers, with 80% of them being pet parents themselves.

About Supertails.com

Varun Sadana, Aman Tekriwal, and Vineet Khanna founded Supertails.com in June 2021. Their corporate headquarters is in Bangalore, Supertails.com aims to build a holistic pet care platform for India's growing pet care industry. Supertails.com is building and leading a category of first-time pet parents by empowering them with the right resources and information. Supertails.com’s full-stack platform offers - pet supplies, online vet consultations (more than 20,000 pet consultations to date), and online behavioural training.

For more information, visit website: https://supertails.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/supertails.official/?hl=en

Early Investors of Smytten Exit With Upto 15X Return, As the D2C Product Discovery Platform Raises Rs.100 Cr in Funding Led by Fireside Ventures and Roots Ventures

(L-R) Swagat Sarangi and Siddhartha Nangia, Founders, Smytten

Smytten raises INR 100cr in Pre-Series B led by Fireside Ventures and Roots Ventures; Some early investors exit with up to 15x return

• The round also saw participation from Sharrp Ventures, Waao Partners, Survam Partners and Sattva Group Family Office.
• A significant part of the investment will be used for building best-in-class engineering talent and tech infrastructure with advanced application of AI & ML that will transform the pre-purchase engagement between consumers and brands.
• The fund will also be deployed to double down the resource strength across key functions including Supply Chain, Marketing, Research & Insights and accelerate growth to INR 500cr ARR by end of FY23.

Smytten-India’s largest tech-enabled product discovery & trial platform which is revolutionizing the pre-purchase experience for millions of online consumers, has raised INR 100cr in Pre-Series B led by Fireside Ventures and Roots Ventures. The round also saw participation from Sharrp Ventures (Harsh Mariwala family office), Waao Partners (Pratul Shroff Family Office), Survam Partners (Munjal Family Office) and Sattva Group Family Office.

Over a half a decade now, Smytten has been transforming the pre-purchase product trial experience for consumers by helping them to try many new products and brands at the comfort of their homes with just a click of a button. Smytten is rapidly gaining popularity amongst millennial consumers and has witnessed an explosive growth in its user base in the last 9-12 months. With more than 10 million users, Smytten is one of the leading innovators in consumer tech, fuelling the growth of a potentially large D2C market in India that's expected to be a $100 Billion market by 2025.

The new investment will primarily be used for building many industry-first tech and data solutions with advanced applications of AI & ML to optimize the marketing funnel for D2C brands starting from new product development to consumer acquisition and retention. Also, the platform is going to invest heavily in creating a best-in-class servicing infrastructure across the country, to widen the product trial touch points and strengthen the online service delivery to better the pre-purchase buying experience for consumers at scale.

Smytten is planning to double down on its hiring across supply chain, marketing and other key functions. Smytten today employs more than 300 people with a very vibrant culture and strong focus on talent retention. It is scaling up its leadership team to fuel the next phase of growth across its offices in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

On the fundraise Siddhartha Nangia, Co-founder, of Smytten said, “We believe sampling-led tried-and-tested method of customer engagement will change the way D2C brands and consumers interact, making it more immersive and experience-based. Smytten has re-crafted the standard playbook of brand creation with the deep tech solutions built based on trial intent and feedback from millions of consumers. It is empowering the next generation of D2C & multi-national brands with actionable insights and a captive audience to scale their business fast. We are launching a new brand a day on our platform and bringing more than 15-20 new products every day to consumers to try. We are thankful to all our brand partners who have placed trust and confidence as we create a robust D2C ecosystem.”

Swagat Sarangi, Co-Founder at Smytten added, "Our mission is to democratize access and experience of premium & D2C brands for the Indian consumers by offering direct-to-home product trials. We are building a robust tech platform to make the pre-purchase journey and decision-making process of consumers very seamless by bringing in the power of trial experiences, data, content and community all together."

Kannan Sitaram, Partner at Fireside Ventures said, "We continue to believe in the development of an enabling ecosystem for the consumer brand revolution that's shaping up in India and Smytten is right at the forefront of it. Their integrated approach to consumer funnel and technological innovations to solve the key challenges faced by many D2C brands, makes them the unequivocal leader in a potentially $10B sampling and advertising market. The data-driven experiential solutions are already making waves and Smytten is becoming the first port of call for every consumer brand."

Japan Vyas Managing Partner at Roots Ventures quoted, “Smytten has grown more than 12X by revenue since the time we invested. We have participated in every round of fund raise they had and will continue to back them in future with even stronger conviction. We are very confident that Smytten is going to be a very large, profitable and fundamentally strong business in the consumer-tech space globally.”

Smytten hosts 900+ brand partners on its platform across lifestyle categories, ranging from fragrances, beauty & makeup, male grooming, food & beverages, baby & mother care, health & wellness and offers product samples to consumers across these categories to help them make the right purchase decisions. It also offers its brand partners a suite of services, data & insights needed for scaling up customer acquisition, product development & channel expansion. Many leading D2C & multi-national brands like Mamaearth, Plum, mCaffeine, WOW Skin, Maybelline, Man Matters, Bodywise, The Man Company, & more are already leveraging Smytten’s platform extensively to reach relevant users at scale and deliver first-hand product experience through sampling.

To date, Smytten has raised more than $20 million in institutional funding. Smytten also counts some marquee angel investors such as Rajan Anandan, ex-MD of Google India & South East Asia, and many other industry veterans as its early backers.

About Smytten

Smytten is India's largest D2C product discovery & trial platform. Launched by ex Unilever and Google executives, Siddhartha Nangia and Swagata Sarangi, respectively, Smytten is enhancing the way India's online consumers discover, interact with, and try consumer products and services. It hosts 900+ brand partners on its platform across lifestyle categories, ranging from fragrances, beauty & makeup, male grooming, food & beverages, baby & mother care, health & wellness and offers product samples to consumers across these categories to help them make the right purchase decisions. It also offers its brand partners a suite of services, data & insights needed for scaling up customer acquisition, product development & channel expansion.

HealthTech Startup Traya Raises $2.2 Mn in Pre-series a Funding Round, Led by Fireside Ventures

Team Traya

Holistic hair care platform Traya has raised $2.2 million in a pre-Series A funding round, led by Fireside Ventures, with participation from existing investors Kae Capital and Whiteboard Capital. Traya has taken upon itself to bring about a change in the hair industry by providing a holistic solution to manage hair loss. The company said it will use the funds to strengthen research and development, build cutting edge technology to personalise the hair growth experience and acquire talent and expand brand reach.

Kannan Sitaram, Partner at Fireside Ventures, will join the company’s board.

The current hair industry is flooded with hair fall products without any clinical efficacy. A one product for all approach can never work for hair loss or for that matter any chronic health issue. Hair loss escalation can be because of multiple root causes and the solutions offered through shampoos, serums, etc., do not get to the root cause of an individual’s hair loss. ‘Traya’ in Sanskrit refers to the threefold way, which is precisely what the brand utilises to manage hair loss. 

Altaf Saiyed & Saloni Anand, Co-founders, Traya

By marrying the science & clinically proven results of western medicine with Ayurveda and food science, Traya helps people identify type, stage and root cause and then puts together a treatment plan accordingly. An ayurvedic doctor and a dermatologist are assigned to each case to track, tweak and prescribe the most suitable plan. Their diet, combined with a proprietary no-side effects formula, helps people manage these root causes, along with hair growth, for long lasting results.

Traya takes responsibility for the results. Its proprietary hair diagnosis (Dx), after managing lakhs of data sets, can now predict time to see results and flag cases that cannot be helped. This has helped Traya achieve a 93% efficacy, also making it the only brand to have a 5-month money back guarantee on hair loss. On an average, customers on Traya’s recommended plan notice a change in hair growth in 5 months.

Altaf Saiyed, Co-founder at Traya commented, “Having gone through it personally, I know how difficult it is to first accept that one has hair loss & to ask for help. The market is cluttered with wrongful claims, and one tends to believe nothing can be done. Hair loss or hair fall is not a cosmetic problem, it's a medical problem that needs a diagnosis and doctors and that is what we are here to change. In fact, of the 1,00,000 + cases Traya has handled last year, 76% had digestion issues, 78% had dandruff issues, 52% had anemia, 36% had IBS, 22% had thyroid, and 16% had PCOS. The most common type of hair loss was the male pattern hair loss (around 70%) which was genetic in nature but further escalated by stress, sleep issues and more.

We used our seed funding to build the unique process and products here at Traya to prove the efficacy at scale. Our fresh round of funding will help us take our holistic approach to other stubborn diseases that an average 30-year-old Indian faces. Additionally, we will build our tech further to provide the best support to help customers stick to the regimen. While we will also invest in clinical trials of new unique formulations to further improve the efficacy of the treatment, Traya’s ultimate goal is to provide the youth with a well-rounded, healthy life.”

VS Kannan Sitaram, Partner at Fireside Ventures said, “Indians, especially men, are losing hair at a fairly young age nowadays and this has a significant impact on self-esteem and confidence. Hair loss is a complex issue that cannot be solved just by topical applications like shampoos and serums. It needs a holistic approach covering diet, nutrition, lifestyle apart from topical applications. Altaf and Saloni have developed enormous expertise in understanding hair loss and developed a unique business model including multiple sciences, consultation, coaching and a suite of products and have demonstrated success in solving hair loss issues. We at Fireside are very excited to work with the Traya team and believe this could be a disruption at a global level.”

Home Interior Design E-Platform Design Cafe Raises $28 Mn Funding from WestBridge and Fireside

Design Cafe, a Bengaluru based online home interior design platform, announced that WestBridge Capital will invest up to Rs 200 cr in a series B round of funding with participation by existing investor Fireside Ventures.

Bangalore based, boutique Investment Bank Sprout Capital Advisors LLP was the exclusive financial advisor on the transaction.

In July last year, the startup had raised undisclosed amount from Fireside in its second round of funding.

Founded in 2015 by Gita Ramanan and Shezaan Bhojani, Design Cafe allows home owners to access best in the country designers which they would otherwise not have access to and allows them to create a designer home in a budget. It is the first of its kind modular home company where the entire home is almost factory made and comes with a
warranty.

[caption id="attachment_127864" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Shezaan Bhojani & Gita Ramanan, Co-Founders of Design Cafe[/caption]

Built on a strong technology backend, the company offers customized interior solutions & personalized designs to consumers.

Design Cafe was set up to address a large personalization and execution gap that existed in the mid-segment (i.e. homes of 1,000-2,000 sq ft.) home interior market. The company also allows Consumers to visualize their home in virtual reality before execution. The company proposes to use the additional capital to expand operations in 6 other cities including Mumbai, NCR and Hyderabad.

The startup is backed by Mr. Kanwaljit Singh (Ex MD. of Helion Ventures), The Salarpuria group through Apurva
Salarpuria and other HNI’s.

Commenting on the funding, Sandeep Singhal, Managing Partner, Westbridge Capital, said, “We have been impressed with Design Cafe’s rapid scaling up and initial success. Their high customer satisfaction rate is an excellent achievement and is a testimony to the company’s deep domain expertise in this sector, hard work and good business judgment. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Design Cafe in their journey of taking the business to even greater heights and building a marquee brand in home design services and products.”

Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Partner of Fireside Ventures said “DesignCafe operates in a large white space and have built a solution that caters to a large target audience. Gita and Shezaan come with significant design experience which helps them understand the consumer need better. We have backed the company since its early days and are excited to partner with them to build a large home interior services Brand”

Speaking on the occasion, Shezaan Bhojani, Co-founder, Design Café said, “We are very pleased to have Westbridge, one of the leading PE investors in India, join the Design Cafe team. We are also excited to strengthen our already close relationship with existing investor Fireside Ventures, who is also participating in this round. These investors share our long-term mindset and align with our values and we are thrilled to have them join us in our journey to script the next chapter of Design Café."

Founded by KP Balaraj, Sumir Chadha, SK Jain and Sandeep Singhal, WestBridge Capital is a highly experienced investment firm, managing over $2 billion of capital, which focuses on investments in India. The PE firm invests through both direct secondary market purchases and negotiated deals. A typical investment ranges from $10 million to $80 million. The team is one of the most recognized in the industry and has a combined 50+ years of experience in investing in Indian companies.

Fireside is a focused early-stage investment platform for consumer brands. Anchored by a slew of marquee investors, including Premji Invest, Westbridge Capital, Mariwala Family Office, Unilever Ventures, Emami Ltd., RP-Sanjiv Goenka Family Office, Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise Investment Office and ITC Ltd., Fireside manages a corpus of Rs 3.4 Bn to be invested in exciting consumer brand startups in multiple rounds, from Seed to Series A funding.

Kids Learning Startup Magic Crate Raises Pre Series A Funding Led by Fireside Venture

Bangalore-based Magic Crate, an early childhood learning brand, has raised an undisclosed amount in its third round of institutional funding led by Fireside Ventures. The Company had earlier raised funding led by Mohandas Pai backed Aarin Capital and 3One4 Capital. The latter also participated in the current round.

Magic Crate was started in 2015 by IIT-IIM alumnus Viswanathan Ramakrishnan and ex-McKinsey consultant Karthik Lakshman. The start-up provides an inquiry & play-based program for early childhood learning at home.

“Research shows that about 80% of critical brain development happens before the child turns 8. This has a direct correlation with what they are exposed to, during those years. Also, in this age group, they have a phenomenal amount of free time and it becomes a big challenge to engage them at home. Magic Crate is solving this pain point for millions of busy, but well-intentioned parents.”, says Viswanathan Ramakrishnan, Co-founder and CEO, Magic Crate.

The company offers a subscription-based service that produces and delivers hands-on activities for kids aged 1.5-13 years. The activities are designed by a team of early childhood experts & product designers, to be educational and also entertaining for kids. Every month, the child explores a new area that excites them, such as space or rainforest. And Magic Crate provides all the necessary materials, ideas and instructions for these themed activities.

Magic Crate has shipped more than 5 lakh crates till date and is growing 100% Y-o-Y. The Company is on track to touch more than 70,000 shipments per month by March 2019. THe company claims that within 3 years of launch, our products have impacted 1 Lakh + families/children in the age group of 1.5 to 13 years; we have crossed an annual revenue run rate of $ 2 Mn+, and are unit profitable.

Kannan Sitaram, Venture Partner, Fireside Ventures says, “Magic Crate is going after a huge white space. During the early years, the child spends more time at home than at school, and yet there are no large consumer brands catering to millennial parents looking to engage their children productively at home. The team has built a solid product line and business model that’s allowing them to scale in a very capital efficient way.”.

Kannan Sitaram will also be taking a board seat in Magic Crate. The funds raised will be used to develop a new range of products, marketing the brand & growing the sale channel.

Karthik Lakshman, Co-founder and COO, Magic Crate, says, “Magic Crate has been unit profitable for over a year thanks to our strong repeat rates and 50%+ gross margins. With this business vertical scaling well with strong unit economics, we are now working on launching exciting new products to our customer base and this funding round helps accelerate our efforts.”

Speaking about Fireside Venturesm it is an early stage consumer brand-focused venture fund launched in 2017 with a focus on consumer brands. Fireside invests in young start-ups and supports them through their evolution by providing in house resources along with a partner and advisor network. The fund aims to invest in consumer brands across sectors such as food and beverages, personal care and home products. It was founded by Kanwaljit Singh, who was previously associated with early-stage venture capital firm Helion Venture Partners. Singh has experience of more than 30 years in consumer marketing and venture investing space in companies like Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Intel and Carlyle Group. The founding team also includes Vinay Singh as Partner who has more than 10 years of experience across consumer brands & digital marketing and VS Kannan Sitaram as Venture Partner who has more than 36 years of experience across Business, Brands & Investing.

Fireside Ventures current portfolio includes Yoga Bar, Samosa Singh, Goodness Beverages, Design Café, Bombay Shaving Company, Mama Earth, Vahdam Teas, Kwik 24, Alpha Vector, Imagine Marketing, Pipa Bella and Magic Crate.

[Top Image - TheHindu.com]

Consumer Electronics Startup boAt Raises Rs.6 Crore from Fireside Ventures

Delhi-based consumer electronic startup boAt has raised Rs.6 crore in a round led by early-stage venture capital firm Fireside Ventures. The startup had been bootstrapped by its founders since its launch in 2016 to this date.

This is the first round of equity funding raised by the 2-year-old boAt, which makes electronic products such as speakers and headphones. The startup will use the capital raised primarily towards marketing and product development.

Founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, boAt claims to have over 800,000 users, and claims to sell 4,200 units per day. Aman had earlier worked with audio product giant Harman International as its India sales director, while Sameer also runs gaming hardware company RedGear. Bot Aman and Sameer have had put in seed capital of Rs 30 lakh in boAt, at the time of startup's formation.

“We need to add some more product categories…Currently we are largely doing personal audio, which is centred around the mobile and the mobile ecosystem. But we will be getting into home audio – soundbars, speakers,” Aman Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of boAt.

The CEO said that the company would begin introducing new product categories by the next quarter. boAt, which began as an online brand, selling across multiple e-commerce platforms, such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, has now begun selling through offline channels as well.

The startup sells its products by listing them on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart. Apart from audio products like headphones and speakers, the startup also sells mobile accessories including charging cables and wall chargers.

For Fireside Ventures, boAt is its fourth investment in calendar year 2018. Since its launch, the Fireside Ventures has backed 12 ventures, including, Yoga Bar, Goodness Beverages, Vahdam Teas, Mama Earth and Bombay Shaving Company as some of its portfolio companies.

The early-stage consumer brand-focused investment firm, which was founded in 2017, has recently closed its first fund with a corpus of Rs 340 crore inadvertently exceeding its original target of Rs 300 crore.

Fireside's fund counts PremjiInvest, the personal investment arm of Wipro promoter Azim Premji’s Premji, consumer goods maker Marico’s Mariwala, RP-Sanjiv Goenka and Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise investment office, as its backers. It also has the backing of some of the largest FMCG giants including Unilever Ventures, ITC and Kolkata-based consumer goods firm Emami along with homegrown investment firm WestBridge Capital.

Earlier last month, Fireside Ventures-backed Blink (Previously Witworks), which is a consumer IoT products & smart wearable devices startup, got acquired by Myntra for undisclosed amount. Blink had raised undisclosed amount in seed from from Fireside Ventures, along with other investors.

Last September, Fireside Ventures lead the $1 million funding in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd ‘s brand Mamaearth, which offer toxin free consumer products for mothers and babies.

Prior to that, Fireside lead $2.3 million funding of Bombay Shaving Company, a brand known for its men’s consumer care products.

This news was first reported by Live Mint.

Consumer Electronics Startup boAt Raises Rs.6 Crore from Fireside Ventures

Delhi-based consumer electronic startup boAt has raised Rs.6 crore in a round led by early-stage venture capital firm Fireside Ventures. The startup had been bootstrapped by its founders since its launch in 2016 to this date.

This is the first round of equity funding raised by the 2-year-old boAt, which makes electronic products such as speakers and headphones. The startup will use the capital raised primarily towards marketing and product development.

Founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, boAt claims to have over 800,000 users, and claims to sell 4,200 units per day. Aman had earlier worked with audio product giant Harman International as its India sales director, while Sameer also runs gaming hardware company RedGear. Bot Aman and Sameer have had put in seed capital of Rs 30 lakh in boAt, at the time of startup's formation.

“We need to add some more product categories…Currently we are largely doing personal audio, which is centred around the mobile and the mobile ecosystem. But we will be getting into home audio – soundbars, speakers,” Aman Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of boAt.

The CEO said that the company would begin introducing new product categories by the next quarter. boAt, which began as an online brand, selling across multiple e-commerce platforms, such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, has now begun selling through offline channels as well.

The startup sells its products by listing them on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart. Apart from audio products like headphones and speakers, the startup also sells mobile accessories including charging cables and wall chargers.

For Fireside Ventures, boAt is its fourth investment in calendar year 2018. Since its launch, the Fireside Ventures has backed 12 ventures, including, Yoga Bar, Goodness Beverages, Vahdam Teas, Mama Earth and Bombay Shaving Company as some of its portfolio companies.

The early-stage consumer brand-focused investment firm, which was founded in 2017, has recently closed its first fund with a corpus of Rs 340 crore inadvertently exceeding its original target of Rs 300 crore.

Fireside's fund counts PremjiInvest, the personal investment arm of Wipro promoter Azim Premji’s Premji, consumer goods maker Marico’s Mariwala, RP-Sanjiv Goenka and Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise investment office, as its backers. It also has the backing of some of the largest FMCG giants including Unilever Ventures, ITC and Kolkata-based consumer goods firm Emami along with homegrown investment firm WestBridge Capital.

Earlier last month, Fireside Ventures-backed Blink (Previously Witworks), which is a consumer IoT products & smart wearable devices startup, got acquired by Myntra for undisclosed amount. Blink had raised undisclosed amount in seed from from Fireside Ventures, along with other investors.

Last September, Fireside Ventures lead the $1 million funding in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd ‘s brand Mamaearth, which offer toxin free consumer products for mothers and babies.

Prior to that, Fireside lead $2.3 million funding of Bombay Shaving Company, a brand known for its men’s consumer care products.

This news was first reported by Live Mint.

Fireside Ventures Leads the $1M Funding Round in Babycare Startup Mamaearth

Fireside Ventures, the Lead Investor in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd ‘s brand Mamaearth have lead the second round of funding in the company. Mamaearth has raised $1 million to fund the brand's innovation pipeline for entering into more categories with safer & healthier products for babies & mother starting with the launch of ‘Traditional Recipes’ by Mamaearth a range of wellness solutions for mothers including herb teas & supplements.

Mamaearth, Asia’s 1’st MadeSafe Certified baby and mother care brand, focusses on toxin free products to reduce parenting stress. The brand currently offers more than 20 different products for babies and moms which help solve various problems of young parents & has sold more than 50K units in a short span of 8 months with products like All Natural Mosquito repellent which are Ranked No.1 in sales across platforms.

It has recently launch products for lactation, stress relief and postpartum weight loss under Traditional Recipes for new moms. Under the “Traditional Recipes by Mamaearth’ label the company's objective is to provide trusted natural remedies in easy to consume formats. It will continue to innovate and drive offline expansion across metros. All mamaearth products are available at Amazon, Flipkart, Firstcry, Nykaa, BabyChakra and across baby stores in Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore.

Kanwaljeet, Founder Fireside Ventures & Lead investor , confirming the news mentioned that The trend of toxin free proposition is around a decade old globally but already there are brands which are valued at more than billion dollars like The Honest Company, Seventh Generation recently acquired by Unilever for around 700 M USD also has a similar proposition. Mamaearth being founded by parents having the right category & business experience and guided by MadeSafe.Org makes it a clear differentiator and that has helped us support the brand from day 1.

Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder & Chief Mama said that, ‘Our team is extremely excited to bring these inspiring organic, safe & healthy products both for moms and babies. We all have strong beliefs in our culture and such natural recipes which have been trusted for centuries. We strongly believe these will help solve many mama problems in a healthy & natural way. It’s important that during child care we give equal deserving care to the mother too and that is what mamaearth is all about. With this new infusion of funds there will be many more solutions that will follow.’

Varun Alagh, Chief Dad & Co-Founder Mamaearth is elated that fireside has confirmed this news and said that they have been a great partner since the very beginning and their support to help innovation in child & mother care space will take us to big league in the near future. The round isn't done yet and we will have more partners by the time we close the round fully. We already have more than 20K happy mamaearth parents which we intend to make 200K by next year end.

Fireside Ventures Leads the $1M Funding Round in Babycare Startup Mamaearth

Fireside Ventures, the Lead Investor in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd ‘s brand Mamaearth have lead the second round of funding in the company. Mamaearth has raised $1 million to fund the brand's innovation pipeline for entering into more categories with safer & healthier products for babies & mother starting with the launch of ‘Traditional Recipes’ by Mamaearth a range of wellness solutions for mothers including herb teas & supplements.

Mamaearth, Asia’s 1’st MadeSafe Certified baby and mother care brand, focusses on toxin free products to reduce parenting stress. The brand currently offers more than 20 different products for babies and moms which help solve various problems of young parents & has sold more than 50K units in a short span of 8 months with products like All Natural Mosquito repellent which are Ranked No.1 in sales across platforms.

It has recently launch products for lactation, stress relief and postpartum weight loss under Traditional Recipes for new moms. Under the “Traditional Recipes by Mamaearth’ label the company's objective is to provide trusted natural remedies in easy to consume formats. It will continue to innovate and drive offline expansion across metros. All mamaearth products are available at Amazon, Flipkart, Firstcry, Nykaa, BabyChakra and across baby stores in Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore.

Kanwaljeet, Founder Fireside Ventures & Lead investor , confirming the news mentioned that The trend of toxin free proposition is around a decade old globally but already there are brands which are valued at more than billion dollars like The Honest Company, Seventh Generation recently acquired by Unilever for around 700 M USD also has a similar proposition. Mamaearth being founded by parents having the right category & business experience and guided by MadeSafe.Org makes it a clear differentiator and that has helped us support the brand from day 1.

Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder & Chief Mama said that, ‘Our team is extremely excited to bring these inspiring organic, safe & healthy products both for moms and babies. We all have strong beliefs in our culture and such natural recipes which have been trusted for centuries. We strongly believe these will help solve many mama problems in a healthy & natural way. It’s important that during child care we give equal deserving care to the mother too and that is what mamaearth is all about. With this new infusion of funds there will be many more solutions that will follow.’

Varun Alagh, Chief Dad & Co-Founder Mamaearth is elated that fireside has confirmed this news and said that they have been a great partner since the very beginning and their support to help innovation in child & mother care space will take us to big league in the near future. The round isn't done yet and we will have more partners by the time we close the round fully. We already have more than 20K happy mamaearth parents which we intend to make 200K by next year end.

Bengaluru Based Design Cafe Raises Funding From Fireside Ventures, Others

Fireside Ventures, founded by Kanwaljit Singh, former managing director of Helion ventures has invested multi-million-dollar in online interior design company, Design Cafe. In the last 18 months, this is company’s second round of funding.

Apurva Salarpuria, founder of Salarpuria Group of Companies, Sidharth Pansari, an angel investor and Sprout Capital, a micro venture capital fund also participated in the round.

The Bengaluru- based company plans to infuse freshly raised funds to expand to other cities, including Mumbai and Delhi.

Commenting on the development, Kanwaljit Singh, MD, Fireside fund said, "Design Cafe is building a strong brand based on its innovation and design processes that are merged with technology to create contemporary new solutions that are relevant. The unparalleled growth is a confirmation of the idea by this futuristic venture.”

Founded in 2011 by Gita Ramanan and Shezaan Bhojani, Design Cafe offers an online customised design and decor solution to consumers. It has 100 employees which includes a technology team, designers and site engineers based out of Bengaluru. According to Bhojani, company had seen an unprecedented 300% growth in revenue over the last 12 months making 20 crores in revenue. He further adds that company expects to achieve over 100 crores in revenue over the next 24 months. The firm has an experience centre in Whitefield and is opening another one on Church Street in Bengaluru.

"The interior design industry has largely been offline and disorganised. Middle-class homeowners with houses priced between the range of Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore have lacked access to designers and innovation in interior decor. We are targeting that segment," said Shezaan Bhojani, Managing Director, Design Cafe.

Other players in the space include, Livspace, a home interior design marketplace backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Homelane.com, backed by Sequoia Capital to name few.

Mamaearth Launches Toxin-Free Baby Care Line, Gets Funding from Fireside Ventures & Others

‘Honest’, ‘Natural’ and ‘Safe’ are the three qualities that define Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. whose first brand ‘mamaearth’ has been launched at Amazon Launchpad. Started by a couple Varun and Ghazal Alagh who are young parents themselves, the startup aspires to reduce parental stress by providing a range of safe, toxin free international standard products as solutions to solve various parental problems.

Available exclusively on Amazon India, the Mamaearth baby range includes certified toxin free body lotion, rash cream, hair-shampoo, body wash, diaper rash cream, massage oil, all natural bug spray and sunscreen lotion for babies in 0-5 years age. All the products are priced at Rs 299.

Varun Alagh, Chief dad, Honasa Pvt. Ltd. and a proud father says “We are a generatin of Google parents, every choice that we make for our child, right from feeding bottles, shampoos to the pediatrician, we thoroughly research before making a decision. Mamaearth is a solution to such parents concerns – who are globally connected, ever evolving and want to make safest choices for their child”

Ghazal Alagh, Chief mama, Honasa Pvt. Ltd and an Artist & a loving mother says “Agastya came into our lives two years ago. This little bundle of joy brought a huge responsibility on me as a mother who wanted to give the best to her child. Mamaearth is going to be mum’s best friend, who understands simple need of a pure product for a mum & her baby. We are a brand that’s by the mums, for the mums and through the mums & hence there is extra vigilance and love that goes into every product of ours.”

The startup is proud to introduce the first toxin-free range of baby care products in India’s – certified by Made Safe - a US based nonprofit organization that provides a comprehensive human health-focused certification for nontoxic products across store aisles, from baby to personal care to household and beyond.

Amy Ziff, Founder and Executive Director, Made Safe says “We’re proud to partner with mamaearth to give consumers a guiding light in the darkness around product safety. “MADESAFE means ingredients have been examined by experts like scientists and doctors to ensure they don’t include known harmful chemicals; this is the future of safe product formulation.”

Kanwaljit Singh, Founder, Fireside Ventures & Lead Investor in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd says “Mamaearth is addressing a key concern of most Mom's regarding safer products for their babies. Varun & Ghazal understand and personally relate to the global demand for healthier, safer and better for you products. I see them creating many niches which currently do not exist in the Indian market but are needed by young parents.”

They plan to use the current round of funding in developing new products, entering new categories, driving brand awareness through digital and testing Go To Market Models.

The baby personal care & hygiene market in India is pegged at an almost 1.5 Bn USD dollar market, growing at a CAGR of 18%. Largely dominated by Johnson & Johnson, Mamaearth looks to gain the trust of the parents in India to grow this market further.

Other startups which operates in the baby and maternity care sector include FirstCry (BrainBees Solutions Pvt. Ltd.). FirstCry acquired Mahindra and Mahindra’s babycare business BabyOye in October this year.

Consumer IoT Start-up Witworks Raises Investment from Fireside Ventures, Top Management of OLA, OYO

Bangalore-based consumer IoT company, Witworks today announced that it has raised a Seed investment round from Fireside Ventures, Investopad, P39 Capital and a syndicated group of angels. Founded by a group of IIT Kharagpur alumni, having previously worked at Google, ITC and Tata Group, Witworks is looking to tap into the nascent smart wearables market currently dominated by large technology players.

The funds will be used for development & launch of Blink, a wrist-wearable platform designed to provide access to contextual information and services on-the-go. With their own voice-enabled operating system called Marvin OS (based on Android), the Witworks team looks to have a seamless integration of hardware and software to deliver an impeccable experience for the user.

Somnath Meher, Co-Founder & CEO of Witworks, said, “Wearables, especially watches, are at a very interesting stage at this point of time. The technology is in place, and there's enough eagerness amongst consumers. But lack of relevant use-cases, ease of interaction and genuine design-empathy have prevented them from taking off. With a blend of technology and design, we are looking to solve that and make smart-wearables ubiquitous.”

Talking about the product philosophy of Blink Ankit DP, Co-Founder & CPO of Witworks, said, “Not being a mobile OEM gives us the liberty to start ground-up instead of replicating the features and UX of a mobile phone on the wrist. Marvin, being a watch-first OS, has a completely reimagined interaction and features for a small 1.4 inch display screen. ”

Chandrashekhar Iyer, Co-Founder & COO of Witworks, who leads the manufacturing from Shenzhen said, “We have partnered with the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the world to make Blink. At the same time, we are working very closely with traditional watchmakers with over 25 years of experience in watch craftsmanship to bring in their design sensibility.”

“Blink is our starting-point in the connected products space as we look to scale the platform over time. And we are excited to bring on board a set of investors who concur with our vision of building a new-age consumer technology brand.”, added Somnath.

Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Partner at Fireside Ventures, said, “Team Witworks has beautifully combined Design, technology and functionality to create Blink. It has the potential to redefine the role of a smart watch.”

Arjun Malhotra, Founding Partner at Investopad said, “The team has fundamentally reimagined how technology is impacting real life and applied this to Blink. In India, so much information is actually pushed outside of apps through notifications and – by leveraging this and distilling what is important – Blink actually simplifies a user's interaction with technology by removing an always-on dependence on it."

Manish Singhal said, "Witworks team has done an incredible job in re-imagining what can go on a wrist in Blink. Very excited to be partnering with them.”

Witworks, in its earlier avatar, has successfully designed, manufactured, and launched a simple innovative solution for earphone entanglement called Rewind of which ~40,000 units has already been sold.

Witworks is a Bangalore based consumer technology company that makes smart devices in the home and lifestyle space. Founded in 2014 by a team of IIT Kharagpur alumni, Witworks aims to provide a seamless experience to users through their connected devices and platform.

Dairy Beverage Maker DropKaffe Raises $500K Led By Fireside Ventures

Bengaluru-based DropKaffe which offers a wide range of cold coffees, milkshakes and other freshly prepared beverages, has raised a bridge round of $500,000 led by Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures. Other investors who participated in the round include GrowthStory, and High Networth Individuals including Apurva Salarpuria of Salarpuria Group, CEO of Naukri Hitesh Oberoi, and Nirupa Shankar of Brigade Group.

DropKaffe is disrupting coffee supply chain to bring freshness, innovating in coffee making and delighting its customers through choices. The company manufactures its line of cold coffees and bottled dairy beverages including milkshakes and markets them across 100-plus modern-trade stores in Bengaluru including More, Foodhall, Godrej Nature's Basket and others.

In its previous round in 2015, the company raised funding from Valley-based P39 Capital and other angels. The one-year old firm has established a unit with potential to produce 20,000 units per day at the cost of Rs 25 lakh.

Also, it has partnered with National Dairy Research Institute for its new line of fruit-based smoothies which have a shelf-life of 30 days and does not contain preservatives.

"We have our own brewing techniques and make sure that bean-to-bottle takes a week and all our product lines are preservative free," said Chaitanya Chitta, cofounder at DropKaffe.

Dairy Beverage Maker DropKaffe Raises $500K Led By Fireside Ventures

Bengaluru-based DropKaffe which offers a wide range of cold coffees, milkshakes and other freshly prepared beverages, has raised a bridge round of $500,000 led by Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures. Other investors who participated in the round include GrowthStory, and High Networth Individuals including Apurva Salarpuria of Salarpuria Group, CEO of Naukri Hitesh Oberoi, and Nirupa Shankar of Brigade Group.

DropKaffe is disrupting coffee supply chain to bring freshness, innovating in coffee making and delighting its customers through choices. The company manufactures its line of cold coffees and bottled dairy beverages including milkshakes and markets them across 100-plus modern-trade stores in Bengaluru including More, Foodhall, Godrej Nature's Basket and others.

In its previous round in 2015, the company raised funding from Valley-based P39 Capital and other angels. The one-year old firm has established a unit with potential to produce 20,000 units per day at the cost of Rs 25 lakh.

Also, it has partnered with National Dairy Research Institute for its new line of fruit-based smoothies which have a shelf-life of 30 days and does not contain preservatives.

"We have our own brewing techniques and make sure that bean-to-bottle takes a week and all our product lines are preservative free," said Chaitanya Chitta, cofounder at DropKaffe.