Venture capital firm DSG Consumer Partners has marked the final close of its third fund at $65 million (Rs 465 crore), overshooting the target of $50 million, founder and managing director Deepak Shahdadpuri told VCCircle.
Shahdadpuri also said the fund’s anchor investors are Belgian private investment firm Verlinvest SA, a New York headquartered single-family office, a global fund of funds and a Middle East single-family office. He didn’t name the family offices and the fund of funds.
The third fund—DSGCP III—had hit the first close at $30 million in April.
The fund’s investment strategy is likely to be the same as that of the previous vehicles. It will make seed and Series A bets on around 20 consumer brands in India and Southeast Asia. It aims to invest $500,000 to $2 million in a company.
DSG Consumer has also marked the first close of its “annex fund”, or add-on fund, at $35 million. The annex fund will invest in select companies from the previous funds.
It had raised an annex fund, DSGCP Tyeb, of $20 million while it was raising its second fund. The VC firm had marked the final close of its second fund at $50 million (Rs 319 crore) in August 2017.
DSG Consumer’s investments from the second fund in India include yogurt maker Epigamia, mother and baby-care venture The Mom’s Co, craft beer startup Goa Brewing Co, vegan personal care brand Arata and cold brew coffee venture Sleepy Owl. Its investments in Southeast Asia include Indonesia’s YouVIt and Singapore’s SaladStop.
The VC firm had raised $12 million for its first fund and made 21 investments starting in 2013. At the time, it had also raised DSGCP Souza, a $10 million co-investment fund.
Its investments from the first fund include hospitality chain Oyo, mobile payments service provider Mswipe Technologies, specialty food ingredients maker Veeba Foods, restaurant reservations and rating platform Eazydiner, personal coaching firm GOQii, frozen dry fruit and vegetable firm Saraf Food and specialty cheese maker Exito Gourmet.
VC fundraising
A number of India-focussed funds have hit fundraising milestones this year.
In May, for instance, homegrown venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners received commitments from a few more Limited Partners (LPs) for its fifth fund that has a target corpus of $450 million.
Also in May, Endiya Partners marked the first close of its second fund at $40 million. Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd, an early-stage venture capital firm backed by Singapore's Temasek Holdings, and Japanese VC firm GREE Ventures also announced fundraising milestones the same month.
Early-stage VC firm Artha Venture Fund marked the second close of its debut fund at more than Rs 100 crore in June.
Other VC firms that have announced fundraising milestones this year include impact investor Omnivore Capital Management Advisors Pvt. Ltd, deep-technology and B2B-focussed VC firm StartupXseed Ventures LLP, early-stage venture capital firm 3one4 Capital and Entrepreneur First.
