Gruhas, Collective Artists launch fund for consumer firms

: India-focused venture capital fund Gruhas, backed by Nikhil Kamath, and creator marketplace Collective Artists Network have launched Gruhas Collective Consumer Fund (GCCF) to back emerging consumer-focussed companies. GCCF will raise and deploy 150 crore initially, with both Gruhas and Collective Artists contributing an equal amount to the fund, and subsequently securing additional fund from external sources. The fund will seek to sustain an average deal size of about 8 crore ($1 million) each.

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder, Gruhas, highlighted the collaborative nature of the fund, saying: “This is the very beginning and, initially, we will raise and deploy about 150 crore. It will likely scale significantly with time. It’s not a proprietary fund.

Both partners will invest equal capital, and we will also have third-party capital, which we will be deploying. ” It will primarily focus on identifying, mentoring and investing in promising startups and creators from diverse consumer industry segments. Vijay Subramaniam, group chief executive and founder, Collective Artists Network, said the first five companies have been selected from wellness, beverages, fashion, lifestyle, hospitality and mothercare sectors.

“The broad idea is to invest in addressable consumer space. The purpose is to power overall consumption. So, if there is a business, which has the right fundamentals, we are happy to look at it,” he added.

A little over year ago, when Subramaniam met Kamath the conversation was around connecting India’s Silicon Valley (Bangaluru) and the entertainment capital Mumbai. “If you see there is no organized connection between media and entertainment business with venture capital. It has never happened.

We shook hands on that one-line thesis to come together to form probably the most effective network capital fund in India, which is directly focused on consumers,” Subramaniam said. “We are looking at this as the coming together of Bengaluru and Bombay for the first time without any intermediaries. So far, it has been a very inefficient ecosystem because one has to go to an intermediary who in turn connects with somebody and connects to somebody.

I think the key differentiation we are hoping to bring is to merge the two worlds in a very symbiotic fashion so things happen a lot faster and lot more efficiently,” said Kamath, adding he is bullish on India’s long-term outlook. “We are not looking for short-term money, nor are we deploying short-term money. This is a broader bet on the India story.

The idea is to get into companies early and help them grow over the long term,” said Kamath. GCCF will not just provide money, but will also mentor and help the companies to grow. “We are looking at investing SMART Capital, it’s not just about providing money, like any other fund.

We’ve been at the precipice of growing consumer brands now for a decade. So the way we intend to build them together across both the Collective flywheel and the Gruhas is we intend to power their brand building, we intend to power their distribution. We will be deploying not just capital but we’ll also be deploying a certain degree of operational prowess and influence and credibility to sort of scale this because I think brands at this stage of growth require efficient use of marketing dollars and that’s where I think across our current flywheel we’ll be in a position to optimize that,” Subramaniam added.

Gruhas, founded in 2011 by Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai (Puzzolana), has already invested in over 30 companies across various sectors, including prop-tech, ad tech, consumer space, health tech, and more. .