Sixth Sense to raise ₹2,500 cr to cash in on fresh wave of consumer disruption

livemint.com:

BENGALURU : Sixth Sense Ventures, which typically invests in early-stage consumer companies, is preparing to chase more ambitious bets as it raises potentially its largest fund ever. Among India’s earliest rupee capital funds, Sixth Sense Ventures is raising ₹2,500 crore for its fourth fund, excluding a greenshoe option that it can use to raise more money subsequently, founder Nikhil Vora told Mint in an interview. The investment firm has backed prominent startups such as Bira, a craft beer maker, Wonderchef, a maker of cookware and kitchen appliances, and Uppercase, a maker of bags and luggage.

Sixth Sense typically dedicates 50-60% of its funds to Series A investments, a startup’s first significant venture financing round. “While we want to be a dominant player in Series A, we can invest across the lifecycle of a company. We have the ability to do angel and growth stages to even listed companies," Vora said.

From its fourth fund, Sixth Sense plans to invest ₹50 crore to ₹250 crore in companies, depending on the fundraising stage. Sixth Sense has deployed nearly 90% of the capital from its third fund, which had a corpus of about ₹2,600 crore, including a greenshoe option. Its first fund had a corpus of ₹118 crore, and its second, ₹515 crore.

Vora said Sixth Sense typically dedicates 80-85% of each fund to new investments and the remaining to top up investments in its portfolio companies. India is increasingly seeing an immense appetite for consumer-focused funds looking to tap evolving consumption patterns and a growing preference for premium products. Rising disposable income has opened significant opportunities for new brands to scale up.