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https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-sixth-sense-ventures-hires-colgate-india-exec-as-cfo-coo/ Sixth Sense Ventures has hired a senior executive of Colgate India as chief financial officer and chief operating officer, the venture capital firm’s founder told VCCircle. Nimisha Nagarsekar, who was head of commercial and investor relations at Colgate India, has joined the VC firm, said Nikhil Vora. “We see our role morphing from being a capital investor to also providing significant operational capabilities. Nimisha fills in that gap materially,” said Vora. Nagarsekar is a chartered accountant with almost two decades of experience in the consumer sector. She has expertise in financial accounting and planning, brand commercials, supply chain and strategy. She has also played a key role in areas such as business valuations, brand sell-off, market entry and due diligence. Nagarsekar said she would provide operational experience to companies within the Sixth Sense umbrella. Sixth Sense, which focuses on consumer-centric companies, made the final close of its debut fund last year, after resizing the target corpus. Its portfolio firms include Weddingz.in, an online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors; JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt Ltd, an oral care products firm; and Grab, a Mumbai-based hyperlocal logistics service provider. Vora has also invested in his personal capacity in several firms, including One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of mobile wallet and e-commerce firm Paytm; Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd, which runs Kangaroo Kids Preschool and Billabong High International School; and Vini Cosmetics, a consumer goods company which raised funding from Sequoia Capital. Other firms in which Vora has invested include sports-focussed digital display solutions firm Technology Frontiers, which is backed by Avigo Capital, and aviation maintenance and repair services provider AirWorks, which is backed by VC firm New Enterprise Associates and GTI Capital. Earlier this year, Vora sold his stake in Paytm to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, reaping gains of almost 75 times.

https://www.livemint.com/Companies/c1dRHiAGEnwZwdWqck2abK/Sixth-Sense-Ventures-in-talks-to-buy-stake-in-Veeba-Food-Ser.html Sixth Sense Ventures, an early-stage consumer-sector-focused fund, is in talks to buy a small stake in condiments and sauce company Veeba Food Services Pvt. Ltd, in a deal valuing the company at over $100 million (about Rs650 crore), two people aware of the development said. Incorporated in 2013, Veeba Food supplies sauces and dips to restaurants and fast-food chains including KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Taco Bell, Domino’s and Starbucks. The company was started by Viraj Bahl, the former head of packaged foods firm Fun Foods, which was sold to German food maker Dr Oetker in 2008. “Sixth Sense Ventures is in talks to acquire a small stake in Veeba, through a secondary share purchase. A couple of the early backers, angel investors, of the company are looking to sell their shares to Sixth Sense,” said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity as the talks are private. The transaction, which will value the company at around Rs700-800 crore, is expected to be closed soon, he added. Veeba Food has been tweaking its business model from a 100% business-to-business (B2B) supplier of condiments and sauces to launching several products under its own Veeba brand through modern retail and online channels, according to the second person mentioned above. “They are attracting significant investor interest given their focus on both the B2B and B2C segments,” he added. B2C refers to business to consumer. Veeba’s retail product range includes mayonnaise, sandwich spread, Italian sauces, salad dressing, dips and mustard sauce. An email sent to Veeba founder Bahl on Tuesday did not elicit any response. “Sixth Sense is a consumer-focused fund and we have invested significantly behind brands of tomorrow. We are evaluating a couple of investments in the space and will disclose the same when closed,” said Nikhil Vora, founder of Sixth Sense Ventures. Sixth Sense is not the first investor to bet on Veeba. In October 2016, Veeba Food raised $6 million in a Series B round of fundraising from venture firms Saama Capital and Verlinvest. Earlier in 2015, the company raised $6 million from DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital. Other investors too have bet on this space. In June 2016, Cremica Food Industries Ltd, a Ludhiana-based food products firm, raised $15 million from Rabo Equity Advisors Pvt. Ltd, which manages the India Agri Business Fund II. Cremica, known for its sauce, condiments and snacks, is looking to achieve sales of Rs1,000 crore by 2020, the company said in a statement announcing the investment.

https://www.vccircle.com/supply-chain-solutions-firm-leap-india-raises-another-13-mn/ LEAP India Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based supply chain solutions company, has raised Rs 88.34 crore ($13 million) in its Series B round of funding from a clutch of new and existing investors, a financial daily reported on Friday. A top executive of LEAP India told The Economic Times that the company has raised this round from IndiaNivesh Growth Fund, Sixth Sense and TCI Ventures. Existing investors, venture capital firm Mayfield Fund and Rishabh Mariwala, who manages Sharp Ventures—the family office of Marico founder and chairperson Harsh Mariwala—also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to hire more professionals and develop its asset-pooling service. Emails sent to the investors and LEAP India didn’t elicit a response till the time of writing this article. Founded in 2013 by Sunu Mathews, LEAP India provides returnable packaging and pooling of equipment such as wooden pallets, metal wire mesh, boxes and plastic containers. The company offers its services to Indian companies and MNCs in areas such as FMCG, consumer durables, beverages and auto. LEAP India had also secured $3 million in a bridge round in May last year from Mayfield Fund and Rishabh Mariwala, as per VCCEdge, the financial data platform of VCCircle. The supply chain firm has raised $ 23 million in equity and debt funding so far. The logistics and supply chain sector has witnessed several mid- to large-sized deals in the last one year. The largest transaction involved Singapore's distressed assets fund management firm SSG Capital Management Group investing Rs 580 crore ($87 million) to acquire a 40% stake in Future Supply Chain Solutions Ltd. In June last year, Mumbai-based cold storage warehousing and transport solutions provider Schedulers Logistics India Pvt. Ltd raised Series B round of funding for expansion.

https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-sixth-sense-bets-kurkure-snack-maker-hindustan-foods Sixth Sense Ventures, a consumer sector-centric venture firm, has invested in Hindustan Foods Ltd (HFL), the vendor that makes PepsiCo Inc’s Kurkure snack brand, the investment firm’s founder told VCCircle. Nikhil Vora said the Goa-based food company fits well into Sixth Sense’s strategy of backing first-generation entrepreneurs operating in large consumer-centric categories. HFL CEO Sameer Kothari also confirmed the deal. This marks the second new deal by the VC firm after it completed the fundraising process for its debut investment vehicle in June. It earlier invested Soothe Healthcare, the maker of Paree sanitary napkin. Vora said Sixth Sense has put around Rs 8 crore ($1.1 million) to acquire a 16% stake in Mumbai-listed HFL. He added that the company is well poised to grow its business in multiple categories. HFL was earlier owned by Dempo Group, which sold a significant stake in the company to Vanity Case Group in 2013. Vanity Case operates 13 facilities in India and is among the largest contract manufacturers for consumer products. HFL makes Kurkure for PepsiCo and baby food products Farex, Easum and First Food for Danone. Besides PepsiCo and Danone, Vanity Case also works with Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline to make personal and home care products and processed foods. Vora said that HFL is looking at some acquisition opportunities to strengthen its manufacturing business and diversify into new product categories. Sixth Sense’s other deals, debut fund For the VC firm, HFL is the ninth firm it has backed since it started investing in December 2014 with the debut deal with luxury watch retailer Ethos. The next month, it invested in Cross Roads India Assistance Pvt Ltd, a roadside assistance provider for cars and two wheelers. The investment firm floated by Nikhil Vora, former managing director of IDFC Securities and its co-head of research, has also invested in Weddingz.in, an online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors, and in oral care products company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt Ltd this year. In August last year, it invested in media group NDTV's e-commerce venture Gadgets 360 and auto portal. And in November last year, it backed Grab, a Mumbai-based hyperlocal logistics service provider. The VC firm made the final close of its debut fund in June raising Rs 125 crore, after resizing the target corpus. It planned to invest in about a dozen companies from this fund, all in the range of Rs 10 crore, Vora had told VCCircle earlier. Vora is independently also a private investor in several firms including One97 Communications, the firm behind mobile wallet and e-commerce firm Paytm; Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd, which runs Kangaroo Kids Preschool and Billabong High International School; Vini Cosmetics, a consumer goods company which raised funding from Sequoia Capital; sports-focused digital display solutions firm Technology Frontiers, backed by Avigo Capital; and MRO AirWorks, backed by NEA and GTI Capital.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/markets/pain-indeednear-term-due-to-demonetisation-says-nikhil-vora-929631.html The former MD and Head of Research at IDFC Securities Nikhil Vora has evolved a strategic roadmap for companies like HUL, Aditya Birla Group, Marico, Godrej etc, and he is one who has been voted as Asia's Best Analyst by the Wall Street Journal. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Nikhil Vora, Founder & CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures spoke about various stocks and sectors and also shared his readings and outlook on demonetisation. He further added that there will certainly be pain in near-term due to demonetisation. He said that a 'surprise' move was needed for this kind of measure. Below is the verbatim transcript of Nikhil Vora’s interview to Latha Venkatesh, Sonia Shenoy & Anuj Singhal. Latha: This is obviously an unprecedented event. You cannot even call it a once in a century kind of thing because such a complex economy with largest population, so much of currency usage. This has never been attempted. How would you trace the impact on demonetisation on the economy - one-quarter pain, two-quarter pain, one-year pain? A: It is important and you guys have done enough and more in the last few days. In any changeover that one is looking at, that changeover has to be drastic and dramatic for it to be impactful. It requires no saying that there is pain for almost everyone. While it supposedly brings about a level playing field for the common guy, the fact is that the common guy was actually benefitting the most because of this black economy or the so-called unaccounted economy in the market. So there will be pain in the next couple of quarters or more. However, we also have this entire thing about – you did not develop the electric bulb by making candles better. You could not have done that. So, you have to create a level playing field. And as economies grow, it has to become cashless. It is an irony that in India context, we have lived with this over the last few decades and no one has really batted an eyelid because frankly, everyone has been participating in it. You, me, everyone has some form of unaccounted money, not necessarily illegal money. So there is pain, there is this transitionary impact which happens, but we have seen that in the Indian context, transitionary impacts are also something which Indian consumers are very adapt to change. It has happened before, not to the magnitude as what we are at today. So, look at how demat took off and the transition was frankly very smooth. Look at how airline ticketing really started to shape up. One may call it to be mid-premia phenomena and not really mass phenomena, but this will also go. I know of more than enough instances of how businesses are down by 90 percent and so on, possibly more. And I do not think that will change in the next month or so. But the fact is that people crib if they have to stand in a queue for a movie ticket. They have not done it for such a huge impact in their own life and these are daily wagers and so on. So, it is a brilliant impact. It is showing up on the conviction of most ordinary citizens of the country and at some stage, you have to give in to something which is for the larger good for which it is very welcome. Anuj: Your conviction was always there. You were one of the first investors in Paytm and that is what we have been told. But, are there enough companies in the industry, in the economy to play this demonetisation? That is something that our viewers would want to know from you. A: The narrow objective is obviously what you were looking at which is what businesses and stocks to buy into and stuff. What will be important is to really look at really good business, a very big market and a really smart product. If you get these three things right, you have got your businesses right. In the Indian context, again, my sense is that most large players have their own inability to change course, because you are large, you are successful by default, you cannot change course. So you have to look at challengers who can actually unsettle the leaders and there will be a lot of challengers that will emerge from this space. So, like you rightly said, Paytm is obviously one play and obviously, I am biased and I am an investor, but the fact is that leadership role changes every decade. We have seen that historically and I do not think we are going to see any change as we move forward. Maybe that decade will actually shorten further as we move forward. You will get businesses which will become a lot more relevant. I could name a few. A lot of them will be in the private space as we speak right now, but I surely think if one wants to call the demise of leaders, you could not get a better time than this right now. The leadership role, the values for the leaders that we have historically paid, that will all change over a period of time. In the next couple of years, maybe sooner, you will have a lot of new-age businesses which will be a lot more relevant for the next five-ten years which will evolve. The most critical aspect will be know your customer (KYC), so if companies know their customers well enough, they are the businesses which will be a lot more relevant over a period. Sonia: You were really ahead of the curve with Paytm. What a bull's-eye that was. Now, Paytm is recording five million transactions a day because of this demonetisation. If you had to pick the next big theme, maybe not in the listed space, even in the unlisted market, what do you see as a trend? A: There is one clear direction that I see. If we look at the last decade in India, there are actually only four brands which have evolved in India and that is reality and it is ironic. You could call Paper Boat as a brand which has evolved, Fogg deodorants which is again one of my investee companies, you could call Go as another one and Patanjali. I frankly cannot think of a fifth brand which has evolved in India. Everything else which has evolved is a platform. So, Paytm is a platform, so is Flipkart and so on, but all other brands that we think today are platforms and not really product brands. So, it is going to be a lot more difficult to identify spaces which will create brands unless they are disrupters in their own spaces. So, if there are large spaces and companies and players are adapt to changing course of these businesses then they will be able to create brands. What spaces to really look at, anything to do with mobile payments, one of it is Paytm, those could be very relevant businesses as we move. Dairy companies. The big theme also as we evolved is unorganised to organised, regional to national and unbranded to branded, so with goods and services tax (GST) also hopefully coming in now. You will start to see a lot of those spaces evolve. So, dairy companies which have historically been very regional strongholds, those could become very large. So, I just think that incrementally investors will need to be a lot more careful than what historically we have been. It is going to be a challenge to really get winners out of the 5,000 odd listed businesses that we have today. Latha: I want to go back to the first thing that you said. We have managed dematerialisation of shares brilliantly, we have managed prior digitisation, but though they were high end, as you said airline ticketing. Why Paytm? Paytm could be destabilised by the unified payment interface, by the MPIN. Are you seeing that level of Mobile Banking Pin (MPIN) usage, mobile to mobile messaging of money to become the basis of payment in society and if that were to happen, what would you buy, if at all, in the listed stock or in any space? A: Like we just said, the changeovers are very drastic. You have to really invest in businesses which are up for disruption and who understand disruption in their own businesses to change course. I have said this earlier also that every business has a life cycle. Non-banking finance companies (NBFC) had a life cycle in the 1990s. They almost died. There are possibly 4-5 which are really relevant today because fundamentally, they were intermediary in a space where the raw material was capital which fundamentally meant that only banks should survive. And I have said this before, IDFC was also lucky to be in that space at some point of time. They had to convert into a bank, which they have done. Banks, today, not necessarily in the next year or so, but over a period of time, will be a struggling spot. So, payment gateways become relevant. Who knows what the next stage is. But today, in the next 4-5 years, there seems to be very visible business to be betting ourselves on. I just think that it is important that we somewhere demystify this entire premia that we have historically paid for large scale businesses because large scale businesses, by its own nature are not as fleet footed as they used to be earlier. Earlier, the biggest trend that they had was they had their distribution power and that ensured that no other player could actually compete with them. Today, distribution means nothing. There are multiple methods of distribution which is available and which will mean that challengers will have a lot more capability than historic to compete. Sonia: In fact, I wanted to ask you about this same conversation that we had about three years ago on the alcohol space. I remember you used track United Spirits very closely and you did mention that United Spirits profits will double over the next three years. But since then, Diageo has come into the fray, things have not really panned out as well, so many regulatory earnings. How did you read into that? A: I agree. I think we have made a mess out of what our numbers should have been and we have never been great at predicting near-term numbers. But specifically in the case of Diageo, their integration did not really happen at all. So, beyond the regulatory and state issues that we keep grappling with, they could not really get their hands together between Diageo India and the United Spirits operation. Second, they have made just the biggest mess of a diligence that one can ever think of. There were enough grey shades which were known to almost everyone in this country. I am surprised someone who bought just the disproportionate stake into that business did not realise what is behind it. It was up in the air for everyone to realise it. Maybe we gave them a better sense of judgement that they have done all that to take I forward. I still refuse to believe that a business where you continue to hold 60 percent market share in this country and you cannot be profitable, it is just insane. It is just not practical. Pernod Ricard has a much smaller stake in India. Sonia: So you write off that story? A: No, you do not write off. Obviously, large businesses or relevant global businesses have their own learning curves and they eventually get it right. Latha: Do tell us how much more of a downside you see in the market and all the big brands you are talking about are not in the listed space – Patanjali, Paper Boat and Go. So, in the listed space, how would you participate in the eventual upturn which should come after this cleansing? A: What I can say for sure is that if I just look at something which has been very close to me, is the consumer space, I can tell you for sure that someone like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is almost shut down their Horlicks plant. Someone like Reckitt Benckiser is losing Rs 10 crore per day today. Someone like Hindustan Unilever or Emami, obviously which are seasonal plays are losing out on their best season, winter. Someone like Lever is obviously struggling with the large packs that they have and so on. So, the entire consumer businesses today, this quarter is almost a write off if one really looks at that. As far as markets are concerned, my sense in that also is that investors adjust themselves, so you will also have the same quality of investors to come in to bet for a larger good. So, there will be players who will be willing to bet for the next couple of years and more who will start to participate a lot more actively. And the near-term guys really move out and withdraw themselves which is perfectly how market behaviour should be. Listed space, precisely why we have set up a venture fund, there is just so much of value in private because early stage entrepreneurs are the one who will challenge the leaders and they are almost always in the private domain. So, we really focus there. Anuj: Since you track media as well. Media is also changing, a lot of digital consumption. Even our channel for example, now gets consumed on Facebook and Twitter a lot more. Any particular niches in that area, listed or unlisted? A: Personally, I have always like PVR amongst all the players which are there. I have struggled with your own business, Network 18 group for a lot reasons beyond content. You have always been brilliant at content and quite poor in corporate governance, sorry for this. PVR is very interesting. They do not control the content, but they control the distribution and that is way powerful. And it is the distribution which very rarely can be replicated. So, I would continue to remain fairly positive there.

https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-sixth-sense-ventures-backs-maker-sanitary-napkin-paree/ Sixth Sense Ventures, a consumer sector-centric venture investment firm, has invested in Noida-based Soothe Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, the firm behind Paree brand of sanitary napkins, a person privy to the development told VCCircle. This marks the first new deal by the VC firm as it completed the fundraising process for its debut investment vehicle early this month. When contacted, Sahil Dharia, founder of the firm, confirmed the development but declined to share the investment amount. The venture capital firm typically invests up to Rs 10 crore picking small minority stake in its portfolio firms. The VC firm is betting on a market with huge growth opportunity. According a research report on market leader P&G, the firm behind Whisper, by brokerage firm HDFC Securities, “Feminine hygiene is among the most under-penetrated segments in the FMCG space.” It cited an old finding of market research firm AC Nielsen that shows that feminine hygiene market penetration was in fact at 11%. “Earlier, product affordability was an issue, now the price per pad has come down sharply over the past few years. Despite strong volume growth in the past few years, we believe the penetration is currently only around 16%. This level is much lower compared to even other emerging markets like China and Thailand (~50%- 60%), Indonesia (over 80%), Kenya (~30%), and equal to Uganda and Tanzania (~16% each). In case of developed countries like the US, the UK and Germany, the penetration level is ~90%-95%,” it noted. Paree, positioned in the value segment of the market dominated by the likes of Whisper, Stayfree, She and Kotex, is currently available in more than 3,000 pharmacies and retail outlets besides e-commerce sites. The company, which claims itself to be India’s first chemical-free sanitary napkin manufacturer, also has distribution tie-ups with major FMCG and retail majors such as ITC and Walmart. Last year, the personal hygiene firm chose Indian ace shuttler Saina Nehwal as its brand ambassador. She has also invested in the company, though it is not clear if the investment is partly in lieu of fee for being the brand's face. In the past, Soothe Healthcare also attracted seed funding by John Cioffi, managing director of wealth management at UBS. The firm was launched four years ago by Sahil Dharia. Dharia had earlier worked as global head of operations, investment research content at Thomson Reuters, where he spent nine years in various roles. Prior to that, he worked on the buy-side at UBS Investment Bank in New York. SSV’s debut fund For the VC firm this is the eighth firm it has backed since it started investing in December 2014 when it backed luxury watch retailer Ethos and put money in Cross Roads India Assistance Pvt. Ltd, a roadside assistance provider for cars and two wheelers. The investment firm floated by Nikhil Vora, former managing director of IDFC Securities and its co-head of research, has also invested in in Weddingz.in, an online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors and oral care products company in JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt Ltd, early this year. Last August, it joined several others to co-invest in media group NDTV's e-commerce venture Gadgets 360 and auto portal. And in November, it backed Grab, a Mumbai-based hyperlocal logistics service provider. The VC firm made the final close of its debut fund last week raising Rs 125 crore ($18.5 million), after resizing the target corpus. It is planning to invest in a dozen odd companies from this fund, all in the range of Rs 10 crore odd, Vora has earlier told VCCircle. Vora is independently also a private investor in several firms including One97 Communications, the firm behind mobile wallet and e-commerce firm Paytm; Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd, which runs Kangaroo Kids Preschool and Billabong High International School; Vini Cosmetics, a consumer goods company which raised funding from Sequoia Capital; sports-focused digital display solutions firm Technology Frontiers, backed by Avigo Capital; Purplle.com backed by IVY Cap; Infinite Analytics backed by Ratan Tata amongst others.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/weddingz-in-raises-undisclosed-funding-from-sixth-sense-ventures/articleshow/50908996.cms Online marketplace for wedding vendors and services, Weddingz.in, has raised an undisclosed sum from consumer-focused venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures, the second such funding raised by the company in less than two months. Proceeds from the pre-Series A round will be used by the year-old Mumbai-based startup towards technology and automation and team expansion, according to an official statement issued by the company on Monday. “We are also looking at getting into newer categories like décor, honeymoon packages, and enhance our customers experience by technology development like making virtual tours of venues on the website possible,” said Sandeep Lodha, founder and chief executive of Weddingz.in. The startup, which claims to be the largest warehouse of wedding service providers, had raised about $1 million in angel funding from a group angel investors, led by Ambit Capital in December last year. Weddingz.in allows consumers to check availability and shortlist venues by themselves or get assistance from Weddingz.in relationship managers. They can also book services at guaranteed best prices, as well as destination weddings through the platform. The startup has also tied up with over 150 designer labels, such as Ritu Kumar and Neeta Lulla, as well as with jewellery brands like Gehna Jewellers and Tanishq, the press release said. “Convenience of a one-stop shop for all wedding related services “at the best rates”, makes Weddingz.in an ideal platform for couples.Further sophistication and transparency to all stakeholders, disrupts the way the industry is structured,” said Swati Mehra, partner - Investments at Sixth Sense Ventures. According to Mehra, the VC fund’s investment in Weddingz.in, is the fifth such made by it, having also backed retail chain for luxury watches Ethos, roadside assistance company CrossRoads, hyper-local logistics startup Grab, and oral care company JHS Svendgard Launched by former IDFC Securities Managing Director Nikhil Vora in 2014, Sixth Sense Ventures, which is raising a Rs 250 crore fund has an investment focus on non-infrastructure and non-financial service ventures. Weddings.in is currently in 10 cities across the country, and plans to expand across the top 20 cities in India by the end of 2016, and the top 100 by the end of 2017, the press release said. The company also claims to organise more than 150 weddings every month. “The wedding industry in India is pegged at $40 billion, with 10 million weddings taking place annually. The market is growing at 25% per year. However, it remains to be extremely fragmented with 100,000 vendors in top 20 cities. Weddingz.in aims to fill an obvious gap in the fragmented weddings and events industry – that of finding the right vendor at the right price,” Lodha, who is also a Wharton alumni, said.

https://www.indiainfoline.com/article/print/general-others-factiva/weddingz-in-raises-pre-series-a-funds-from-sixth-sense-ventures-116020900575_1.html Weddingz.in,India’s largest wedding market placehas raised pre-Series A fund from Sixth Sense Ventures, a consumer-centric fund.Sixth Sense Ventures has previously invested in several successful businesses including Grab, Purplle, Vini Cosmetics, Gowardhan to name a few. Weddingz.in also raised over $1 million in seed capital in December 2015 from a group of angel investors led by Ambit Capital. A Unicorn in the space of Online Wedding Planning in India, Weddingz.in is a one-stop technology-enabled platform that simplifies the process of finding and booking services at the best prices. It aims to fill an obvious gap in the fragmented weddings and events industry – that of finding the right vendor at the right price. With a listing of more than 2000 wedding venues and 2000 wedding vendors across 10 locations in India, it is the largest warehouse of wedding service providers. Presently organizing more than 150 weddings every month, Weddingz.in is the largest wedding company in India and plans to reach out to top 20 cities by the end of 2016 and 100 cities by 2017-end. The company, within one year of its launch, boasts of a 100+ stellar team that includes IIT/IIM/Wharton alumni, all working with the single goal of making dream weddings hassle-free and affordable. Commenting on this, Sandeep Lodha, Founder and CEO, Weddingz.in said,“The wedding industry in India is pegged at US$40bn, with 10m weddings taking place annually. The market is growing at 25% per year. However, it remains to be extremely fragmented with 100K vendors in top 20 cities. Weddingz.in aims to fill an obvious gap in the fragmented weddings and events industry – that of finding the right vendor at the right price. Further with a change in the age at which people are getting married, younger generation is taking control and planning their own weddings. “Convenience” becomes a key factor for these time-starved couples that are looking for a one-stop solution for their entire Wedding needs.He further added, “We will be using these funds for technology/automation and team expansion. We are also looking at getting into newer categories like décor, honeymoon packages etc. and enhance our customers experience by technology development like making virtual tours of venues on website possible”. “Sixth Sense is India’s first “consumer-centric” domestic venture capital. We partner with first generation entrepreneurs’ creating disruption in traditionally large spaces within the Indian consumption landscape. Essentially, we look to back a smart-ass team with a kick-ass product in a big ass market. The first four investments from the fund (Ethos, CrossRoads, Grab, JHS Svendgard) and our earlier personal investments (One97, Parag Milk, Vini Cosmetics, BVG, Infinite Analytics, etc.) reflect our core consumer-centric passion and focus. Weddingz.in is the 5th investment from our Fund”, shared Swati Mehra, Partner, Investments, Sixth Sense Ventures. “At Sixth Sense we believe India is witnessing a wave of sophistication across all consumer centric industries. The change from “unorganized” to “organized”, “loose” to “packed”, “unbranded” to “branded” is evident. Against this backdrop, we believe transformation of the US$40bn Indian Wedding industry is in the coming! With time-starved young couples now at the helm of wedding planning, convenience and sophistication is the need of the hour. Further young couples are becoming the critical decision makers for their weddings, with over 40% of weddings in Tier-I cities being planned by the bride and groom. We see “convenience” as an extremely strong value proposition for these time starved couples. Convenience of a one-stop shop for all wedding related services “at the best rates”, makes Weddingz.in an ideal platform for couples.Further sophistication and transparency to all stakeholders, disrupts the way the industry is structured. While on one hand venues/vendors are facing capacity utilization issues, the consumers are in turn left wanting for a hassle free booking experience for their wedding services. We see Weddingz.in enabling the marriage between vendors and consumers, thereby creating a strong value proposition for itself.” “We see the need for a “credible platform” in the fragmented and unorganized weddings space. Sandeep, a first generation entrepreneur, comes with a strong passion of creating the largest Wedding Company in India. His strong pedigree (Ex-Bain and Disney), solid team and aggression instilled confidence in us. The business model is unique and differentiated in comparison to the other listing platforms. Weddingz.in fits well into Sixth Sense investment thesis of “first generation entrepreneurs” creating disruption in spaces with large potential (US$40bn industry!)”, she further added.

https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-weddingzin-gets-pre-series-funds-sixth-sense-ventures/ Weddingz.in, an online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from consumer-centric venture fund Sixth Sense Ventures. The Mumbai-based startup will use the money raised for technology, automation and team expansion. L Fast Brands Pvt Ltd, which runs Weddingz.in, plans to expand its category offerings to include decor, catering and honeymoon packages. Besides weddings, the firm intends to offer services for birthdays and anniversaries. “The company will also use the funds to ramp up its website by offering virtual tours; it is also developing a mobile app,” said founder and CEO Sandeep Lodha. Lodha, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and The Wharton School, started Weddingz.in about 13 months ago. Currently, the firm is present in 10 cities, including Delhi, Bangalore and Goa. The company expects to have operations in 20 cities by 2016-end. “We are growing 35 per cent month on month,” Lodha claims, adding that Weddingz.in facilitated about 100 bookings in December. Weddingz.in provides wedding venue recommendations. It also connects users with wedding service providers such as photographers, makeup and mehendi artists and planners. In November, the startup had raised about $1 million (around Rs 6.7 crore) in angel funding from a group of investors, including Google India’s managing director Rajan Anandan. A bunch of startups that seek to connect couples with wedding planners has emerged in the last 12 months. The market for wedding-related services is estimated to be worth $40 billion in India, according to US-based venture capital firm CerraCap Ventures. Some of these ventures have also secured external funding. In December 2015, CerraCap invested in NDTV’s online wedding and festival planning portal Special Occasions Ltd. In September, wedding planning portal WedMeGood raised seed funding worth Rs 2.7 crore ($407,200) from Indian Angel Network. Others in the Indian online wedding planning space include WeddingPlz, PlanningWale and FullOnShaadi. Sixth Sense Ventures was founded in 2013 by Nikhil Vora, formerly managing director and co-head of research at IDFC Securities. It recently invested in oral care products company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt Ltd.

https://www.vccircle.com/how-roadside-assistance-firm-cross-roads-overhauled-its-business-model/ Cross Roads India Assistance Pvt Ltd, a roadside assistance provider for cars and two wheelers, is looking to register a four-fold revenue growth by offering its services through a digital platform as well. The company, which has last year raised funding from Sixth Sense Ventures, is following a hybrid business model. “We would act as a marketplace for garage owners and technicians to expand in terms of geographies and customers. We have already tied up with 18,000 of them in 15 cities across the country,” said Puneet Sharma, chief operating officer at Cross Roads India. The company has launched an app four months ago which enables users to get in touch with the firm when a car breaks down. The firm tracks the user’s location and connect him/her with the nearest garage or mechanic. The company claims that the digital model has helped it increase its customer base to 4.1 lakh from 25,000 within a year. It hopes to attract 1 million customers by the end of this year. “We are attending to nearly 1,350 roadside repairs everyday now. Earlier, our 500 strong team used to handle 1,200 cases,” said Sharma, an IIT-Lucknow alumnus. The company is running this app-driven model in Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Udaipur, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Goa, Lucknow, Kanpur and Bhubaneshwar. “We are in advanced stages of talks with several venture capital firms to raise $25 million to support our expansion to 10-15 cities where we already have a customer base,” he said. However, it said it will retain the brick and mortal model too. Its fleet of 250 vans, procured at an investment of Rs 5 lakh each, will still provide roadside repair and assistance. Sharma said the company is planning to double the number of employees in six months. Last year, it had secured its first institutional fundraise through a Series A round from Sixth Sense Ventures, which put in about Rs 10 crore ($1.5 million) for a significant minority stake. The company, however, retains a subscription model under which it charges Rs 999 for support for 12 months. Besides, it has started following a pay-per-use model under which it is charging Rs 399 for one-time support from non-subscribers. “We are getting Rs 100 from each of these transactions,” he said, adding its monthly sales range Rs 2-3 crore. In the B2B space, it handles several major players in insurance, telecom, e-commerce and DTH sectors that include PolicyBazzar.com, Panasonic, Airtel, Micromax, ShopClues, Mydala, Tata Sky and Dish TV. The company claims it charges Rs 50 lakh-1 crore from a corporate client for providing support for a year. “But, B2C segment is contributing 85 per cent of the business,” said Sharma. Sharma was associated with Tata Docomo, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd and Seventymm.com before joining Cross Roads India in April last year. The company, which operated as a subsidiary of Action India Pvt Ltd that was launched in 1999, churned out revenues of Rs 14 crore for the year ended March 31, 2014 and Sharma claimed that it ended FY15 with Rs 15 crore. But, he is hopeful of closing this year in March 31 with Rs 60 crore backed by the growth recorded from the new business model. The company claims that it has a market share of 72 per cent in the out-of-warrant-assistance segment. It competes with the likes of MotorExpert, TVS Automobile Solutions Ltd’s MyTVS and carzcare.com.