In today’s business world, customer-centric ventures are one of the important sectors that cannot be overlooked. These brands are focused on understanding and meeting customer needs and lead the way in terms of market innovation and differentiation. With an aim to nurture this sector & backing innovative consumer firms, early-stage venture capital firm Sauce.VC has successfully closed its latest fund named Sauce Continuity Fund.
Originally aiming for a target of Rs 250 crore (about $30.2 million USD), the Sauce Continuity Fund surpassed expectations by achieving a final close at Rs 263 crore. Notably, the fund was directly raised by the Sauce.VC team without needing to involve other companies for distribution.
The investors contributing to the Sauce Continuity Fund belong to different types of organizations, like family offices, insurance companies, and fund of funds along with many repeat Limited Partners (LPs).
“LPs have backed us a third time in less than five years to invest in the Indian domestic consumption thesis. We realize the importance of delivering on this trust in the same manner as our first two seed funds have been delivering thus far,” Manu Chandra, Founder of Sauce.VC further said.
The Sauce Continuity Fund will be focused on investing in companies that are in their early growth stages, particularly from Series A to Series C. Moreover, they plan to support around 7 to 8 companies with an initial investment of about Rs 20 crore along with more investment in follow-up rounds, with cheques ranging from Rs 15 to 20 crore.
Successful companies from its earlier funds, with a strong focus on those with yearly sales of about Rs 80-100 crore and a growth rate of 100% each year, will also be considered for growth stage investments via this fund.
In recent months, the fund invested in five companies XYXX, a men’s innerwear brand known for its comfort and style, The Whole Truth Foods offering clean label food for health-conscious consumers, Mokobara, a brand known for quality travel lifestyle accessories, Innovist, focusing on innovative personal care solutions, and Supertails, a petcare platform.
“A smaller fund strategy allows for more practical exits without deployment pressure given the depth of secondaries that we see in India today. Also, many brands exit to strategics even at a small to mid-scale, this allows us to participate profitably in such investment stories as well.”, added Yash Dholakia, director at Sauce.
Apart from directly investing, Sauce.VC has also joined funding rounds led by well-known firms like Peak XV, Fireside Ventures, and Amazon Smbhav Fund.
Looking ahead, Sauce.VC plans to invest more from the Continuity Fund in promising ventures like Perfora, a brand focused on innovative oral care, Hocco, an ice cream brand with delicious flavors, and Rockit, an energy drink.
Sauce.VC: Empowering Customer-Centric Ventures
Sauce.VC is a venture capital firm that focuses on consumer-focused ventures and has an engaging partnership model. The firm’s attention lies in collaborating with startups in the Food & Beverage, personal care, and lifestyle sectors. Recognized as first-cheque investors and long-term allies to consumer brands, their philosophy relies on a hands-on approach with founders.
Founded by Manu Chandra, Sauce.VC has a strong network of service partners to help brands grow in India, making them a reliable choice for startups aiming to succeed in the consumer market.
Manu Chandra: The Brain Behind Sauce.VC
Manu Chandra is an experienced investor who focuses on investing in new consumer businesses and it is through this interest of his that he founded Sauce.VC. Before starting his journey at Sauce.VC, he was a Director at 3i Group, a private equity firm based in the UK where he managed investments of more than ₹2,000 crore in different industries like entertainment, industries, and infrastructure.
Before joining 3i, Manu gained startup experience by co-founding Grail Research, a research and consulting firm, where he served as Chief of Staff. He also has a background in marketing and strategy consulting for Fortune 500 clients, having worked at Monitor Group. Prior to this, Manu held roles in sales and operations within the consumer banking division of Citibank.
Manu holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, where he earned the Ratan Tata Scholarship for academic excellence. Additionally, he was awarded the Lehman Bros Scholarship for participating in the exchange program at Anderson Business School, UCLA. He completed his undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering from Delhi University.
“We met Manu when we just had the idea of changing how petcare marketing is done in the country. Looking back, it feels amazing the amount of confidence Manu showed in the three of us! And that was just the start.From ideation to execution, Manu and his team at Sauce have always been there for us.
There are many stories of investors who go all out to help companies, but when your investor adopts a pet (Manu got Bruno to post the investment) to ensure he lives our brand and the customer journey better, it showed his commitment beyond capital.” Said Varun, Vineet and Aman Co-founders, Supertails
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