Venture capital firm Fireside Ventures, which focuses on early-stage investments in the consumer space, has appointed Dipanjan Basu as partner and chief financial officer.
Basu will join from Myntra and Jabong, the fashion units of Walmart-owned e-commerce giant Flipkart. He is currently serving his notice period.
After Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal’s abrupt departure earlier this month, a person close to the development had told TechCircle that Basu was also on his way out.
In a statement, Fireside said that Basu will join towards the end of January. He will be responsible for initiating and managing new investments in addition to setting up financial, regulatory and investor management processes for the fund.
Before joining Myntra and Jabong in 2016, Basu was the CFO and chief operating officer for IT services firm Wipro’s digital and consulting business, where he was responsible for building and setting up new businesses, M&A and investments in startups. Basu, a chartered accountant, also had a two-year stint as CFO with Quatrro Risk Management Services.
Separately, Fireside said that budget airline IndiGo’s former president Aditya Ghosh had come on board as an advisory board member in September. Earlier this month, budget hospitality chain OYO had appointed Ghosh as its chief executive for India and South Asia.
The other advisory board members at Fireside include Amit Agarwal, senior vice president and country manager at Amazon India; Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico Ltd; and Sri Rajan, chairman, Bain & Company India.
Fireside Ventures’ senior leadership team includes managing partner Kanwaljit Singh, partner Vinay Singh and venture partner Kannan Sitaram.
The VC firm had marked the final close of its debut fund at Rs 340 crore (about $52 million) in March.
The fund’s limited partners (LPs) include PremjiInvest, private equity firm WestBridge Capital, the Mariwala family office, Unilever Ventures, Emami Ltd, RP-Sanjiv Goenka family office, Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise Investment Office and ITC Ltd.
The fund invests in consumer brands across sectors including food and beverages, personal care, lifestyle and home products.
Fireside Ventures’ current portfolio includes Yoga Bar, Samosa Singh, Goodness Beverages, Design Café, Bombay Shaving Company, boAt, Mama Earth, Vahdam Teas, Magic Crate, Pipa Bella and Alpha Vector.
