Consumer-focused venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures has invested in plant-based meat company GoodDot Foods Pvt Ltd.
GoodDot will use the fresh capital for research and development and marketing to support its international growth and strengthen its position in the industry, according to a statement.
Udaipur based GoodDot was founded in 2016 by chief executive Abhishek Sinha and finance chief Deepak Parihar. The startup's technology replicates the taste, texture and flavour of chicken, mutton and beef using plant-based ingredients.
The company recently launched its products in Canada, Dubai, Nepal, South Africa and Singapore. It plans to expand in the US and Europe in the coming months. The company also plans to expand its chain of retail quick service restaurant outlets in Mumbai, Delhi, Udaipur and Kathmandu.
The firm sells through direct-to-consumer channels, e-commerce platforms as well as over 7,500 offline stores.
The statement noted that, according to research firm Euromonitor, meat substitutes is a $20 billion market globally expected to touch $23 billion by 2024.
Nikhil Vora, founder and CEO of Sixth Sense, said consumption preferences will evolve increasingly fast towards meat alternatives on the back of health, ecological and compassion related reasons.
J R Laddha Financial Services was the exclusive advisor to the deal. Satish Ganega, vice-president of investment banking at J R Laddha, said that GoodDot has seen 2.5x growth during the Covid-19 period which indicates that India is steadily acquiring a taste for plant-based meat substitutes and this space is primed for an exponential growth in the coming days.
The broader health and wellness category, especially nutrition, has seen some transactions in the past few months.
Last month, VCCircle reported that consumer sector focused venture capital firm Fireside Ventures is in advanced talks to back a plant-based nutrition startup.
Wellbeing Nutrition, an organic plant-based nutrition company, raised an undisclosed amount through revenue-based financing platform Klub last month.
In March this year, plant-based nutrition brand OZiva raised $12 million in a Series B round, nearly nine months after a Series A exercise.
Sixth Sense was founded in 2014 by Nikhil Vora, former managing director and co-head of research at IDFC Securities. He was also an early investor in Paytm parent One97 Communications Ltd and walked away with a 75-fold gain on the investment by selling his stake to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Sixth Sense raised Rs 125 crore for the first fund and had a target corpus of Rs 350 crore for the second fund, which exceeded Rs 500 crore when it marked the final close in 2018.
Investments in Veeba Foods, Soothe Healthcare (Paree), LEAP India, Fullife, and Eupheus Learning are some other examples of the firm’s successful bets over the years.
Earlier this month, VCCircle reported that Sixth Sense has invested in a Matrix Partners backed healthy snacks startup.
Last year, VCCircle reported that Sixth Sense was floating its third consumer-focused venture capital fund that will aim to tap into an additional set of investors and raise far more money than its predecessor vehicles.