Sauce VC launches third fund eyeing a corpus of Rs 250 crore

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Sauce VC, which has backed new-age luggage brand Mokobara, healthy foods startup The Whole Truth and petcare firm Supertails, has launched its third fund with a target to raise Rs 250 crore, founder and managing partner Manu Chandra told ET.

The New Delhi-based investment firm received clearance from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) a few weeks ago for the new fund, Chandra said, adding that it aims to back 15-16 consumer brands in their early stages.

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Sauce VC’s new fund comes at a time when the direct-to-consumer (D2C) space is seeing growing interest from risk capital investors, including tech-focused firms, as reported by ET earlier.

It is looking to predominantly raise capital from domestic limited partners, or sponsors that back venture firms. Sauce VC is also looking to raise capital from its existing backers, which include family offices and corporate houses focused on consumer sectors.

Sauce VC’s first fund was Rs 60 crore in size and was closed in 2019 with the second closed in 2021 with a Rs 158 crore corpus. The firm had also raised a Rs 260 crore continuity fund to back winners from its earlier vehicles.


However, Chandra said that the firm was doing away with the strategy of raising continuity funds, and