Fireside Ventures News Today

Several direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in food and beverages sector are drawing significant amounts of venture funding.

Happy Monday! A new wave of brands founded by second generation entrepreneurs is snagging venture capital. This and more in todays packed edition of ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Several direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in sectors such as food and beverages, apparel, health and wellness — founded by scions of families running traditional businesses in similar categories — are drawing significant amounts of venture funding.

Uppercase–a luggage brand started by former VIP Industries MD Sudip Ghose–is in talks with Flipkart-backer Accel to raise new capital, sources told us. This would be the third major deal in the space after Peak XV Partners Mokobara investment and Lighthouses bet on Safari.

Consumer Brands: Uppercase–a luggage brand started by former VIP Industries MD Sudip Ghose–is in talks with Flipkart-backer Accel to raise new capital, sources told us. This would be the third major deal in the space after Peak XV Partners’ Mokobara investment and Lighthouse’s bet on Safari.

While the amount of funding in the late stage almost tripled to $458 million from $149 million in May last year, investors made only four investments in May, over eight deals in the year-ago period.

Government-backed funds from Norway, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait are attracted to the increasing profitability of companies like Zomato, Policybazaar, and Mamaearth, say experts.

New Delhi-based investment firm Sauce VC, which has backed new-age luggage brand Mokobara, healthy foods startup The Whole Truth and petcare firm Supertails, aims to raise Rs 250 crore for its third fund. This comes as D2C firms see growing interest from risk capital investors. The firm looks to back 15-16 consumer brands in their early stages.

Investors and startup founders are noticing a trend: D2C businesses across various sectors, like fashion, electronics, and food and beverage, are opening physical stores (going offline) even after their initial funding round.

Bertelsmann India Investments, which has invested in D2C brands such as Nat Habit, Pepperfry and Licious, is predominantly focused on consumer-tech startups