Apr 24, 2023

Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash 24 April, 2023 Indian venture capital (VC) firm Spring Marketing Capital is in the process of raising Rs 300 crore ($36.59 million) for its second fund as it looks to ramp up investments in consumer-facing businesses, DealStreetAsia has learnt. The firm has already garnered about 50% of the targeted capital and is betting big on sectors such as consumer goods and services, financial services, healthcare, and technology. “This time, they are looking to raise a growth fund and have already garnered quite a bit of capital for it,” said a source on the condition of anonymity. Spring Marketing Capital, founded by former Lowe Lintas Chairman and CCO Arun Iyer and former Sequoia India CMO Raja Ganapathy in 2019, launched its first fund with a corpus of $30 million. Registered under the Indian capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, as a category II alternative investment fund (AIF), Spring typically invests $1-2 million in startups. It counts Jar, Mosaic Wellness, Smiles.ai, Bewakoof, Juicy Chemistry, and Purplle among its portfolio companies. The investors who have so far backed Spring funds include entrepreneurs, VCs, family offices, advertising film makers, marketing professionals, and consulting partners. Verlinvest, a firm founded by the families that own beer maker AB InBev, is its anchor investor and strategic partner. Despite macroeconomic headwinds, several investors — both private equity (PE) and VC firms — have hit the fundraising trail. Earlier this month, DealStreetAsia reported that mid-market PE firm Amicus Capital Partners, the backer of startups like online insurance platform RenewBuy, Capital Small Finance Bank, and Berar Finance, has hit the first close of its second investment vehicle at $75-100 million (Rs 600-800 crore). The PE major is understood to be targeting a total amount of $200 million for the vehicle as it looks to spruce up its investments across fast-growing sectors such as financial services, consumer, healthcare, technology, and business services. Others that are in the market to raise capital include Xponentia Capita l, Rockstud Capital, 8i Ventures, Lighthouse Canton, Investcorp India, and Accel, among others. Fireside Ventures made headlines late last year in the consumer space when it raised $225 million for its third fund to back domestic consumer brands. DealStreetAsia has reached out to Spring Marketing Capital for comments.