Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) will invest INR 100 crore to anchor the early stage fund Early Spring, set up by Spring Marketing Capital.
The new fund will have a corpus of INR 300 crore and will invest between INR 5 crore and INR 20 crore in seed and pre-Series A stage startups. GCPL will also offer its expertise and experience to portfolio founders.
“The mandate of the fund is to have a specific focus on categories such as home and personal care and health and wellness, which is also the broad area and purpose for Godrej,” said Omar Momin, head of M&A at GCPL.
Momin also stated that GCPL intends to nominate some of its employees as partners to the startups in which the fund invests in order to share the company’s experience in areas such as marketing and distribution as well as to learn from the startups.
“We will have a window into these companies’ investment and boards to understand how they are progressing and share our experiences in areas that are particularly common in consumer branding,” Momin added.
Spring Marketing Capital, founded by Raja Ganapathy, Arun Iyer, and Vineet Gupta, closed its first round at INR 150 Cr and continues to invest in companies at the Series A and beyond. So far, it has made investments in Purplle, Bewakoof, Juicy Chemistry, Smiles.ai, and Mosiac Wellness.
It also consults for BYJU’S, Urban Company, Tata 1mg, and Wakefit, amongst others. Godrej’s move comes at a time when FMCG companies like Wipro and Unilever are launching venture funds to invest in early-stage consumer brands in India.