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https://www.vccircle.com/sixth-sense-ventures-invests-jhs-svendgaard/ Consumer-centric venture fund Sixth Sense Ventures said on Monday it has invested in oral care products company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt Ltd. The transaction involves an investment of Rs 3.3 crore ($0.5 million) for a stake of around 11 per cent that would get diluted by half as the firm has simultaneously decided to issue convertible warrants to its promoter and others to raise Rs 24.5 crore. The company is issuing new shares and warrants at Rs 11 apiece. This means the investors would be sitting on unrealised gains of two times their principal at the time of investment given that shares of JHS Svendgaard closed at Rs 25.1 each on Monday. The shares jumped 4.8 per cent in a weak Mumbai market to hit the upper limit for the day and have doubled in the past month. JHS is a contract manufacturer for brands such as Dabur, Patanjali and Amway. It has also launched its own oral care portfolio under the brand Aquawhite. The Delhi-based company started as a small-scale enterprise in 1997 as Sunehari Svendgaard. Seven years later it was incorporated as JHS Svendgaard Laboratories and made its debut on the bourses in 2006. It has two production facilities at Noida, which is an export-oriented unit, and Kala Amb area in Himachal Pradesh. “Apart from servicing the contract manufacturing needs of some of the top brands in India, JHS would also be working to creating a strong niche brand of JHS in oral care category,” said Nikhil Nanda, founder and CEO of JHS Svendgaard. “We believe that there are ‘white spaces’ within the category which a challenger is better suited to address. We believe that there is a huge pent up demand for a disrupter in the category and our belief is that given its operational capabilities and a meaningful understanding of the consumer behaviour, future product launches under Aquawhite will open up the space for JHS," said Nikhil Vora, founder and CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures. Interestingly, Vora himself is a small investor in JHS Svendgaard. In fact, last year he had joined some other proposed investors to put in fresh money into the company as a personal investment. However, that deal was delayed and eventually scrapped. The firm last week proposed to raise cash afresh through a preferential allotment of warrants to the promoter and others including Mohit Burman and others. Vora said Sixth Sense Ventures will also get a board seat that it may opt for at a later date. This is the fifth portfolio firm for Sixth Sense Ventures after its debut deal where it backed luxury watch retailer Ethos. In January last year, it put money in Cross Roads India Assistance Pvt Ltd, a road side assistance provider for cars and two wheelers. In August, it joined several others to co-invest in media group NDTV's e-commerce venture Gadgets 360 degree. In November, it backed Grab, a Mumbai-based hyperlocal logistics service provider. Sixth Sense Ventures is not the first institutional investor to bet on JHS. Five years ago, Tano Capital had picked up just under 15 per cent of the firm for around Rs 25 crore. Its stake is now worth Rs 8.75 crore. For the year ended March 31, 2015, JHS Svendgaard reported a net loss of Rs 22.17 crore on revenue of Rs 55 crore.

https://www.vccircle.com/hyperlocal-logistics-startup-grab-close-raising-10m-more

https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-dealbook-sixth-sense-invests-in-grab-stylofie-raises-250k-from-hks-swastika-20802/

https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-sixth-sense-ventures-backs-hyperlocal-logistics-startup-grab/ Consumer centric venture fund Sixth Sense Ventures, floated by former IDFC Securities' managing director and its co-head of research Nikhil Vora, has invested in Grab, a Mumbaibased hyperlocal logistics service provider, adding it as the fourth portfolio firm for its maiden fund. The company, which is run by Grab a Grub Services Pvt Ltd,had recently raised funding from restaurant listing and online food ordering startup Zomato. Vora told VCCircle that his VC firm co-invested in Grab as part of the same round. “Sixth Sense Ventures has invested nearly Rs 7 crore ($1.5 million) in Grab as part of the deal,” he said. “Hyperlocal sector is becoming critical for growth. Now the hyperlocal deliveries are mainly focused on food stuff. Over a period of time, it could migrate to a lot of other services such as groceries and health care,” he told VCCircle. “And with Zomato on board as co-investor, the client’s new customer acquisition cost fundamentally becomes zero as it will introduce them in all geographies in the country,” added Vora. “While Zomato's association with Grab has started off as a financial investment, over time the relationship between the two will be a strategic one,” he said. Interestingly, Zomato had also invested in another hyperlocal delivery startup called Pickingo. Grab was launched in 2012 by Pratish Sanghvi, Jignesh Patel and Nishant Vora. An alumnus of Drexel University, Sanghvi served as a consultant in Blackrock for nearly seven years. While Patel, an alumni of Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, was earlier associated with Century Electronics & Electrical Equipment as managing partner for around nine years, Vora is an engineering graduate from Mohawk College and is also a promoter at Silver Foliage. Grab claims to have over 500 riders (delivery boys) in Mumbai and connects users to more than 350 restaurants. It claims to have delivered orders worth Rs 35 crore in Mumbai for the year ended March 31, 2015. In April, Grab raised $1 million (Rs 6.3 crore then) from Oliphans Capital and former Network18 CEO Haresh Chawla. It counts country’s top QSR chains Pizza Hut, Burger King and Subway and fine dining restaurant chains Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta and Punjab Grill as its clients. Sixth Sense Ventures  Meanwhile, Vora expects to complete fundraising for Sixth Sense Ventures' debut fund soon. The fund that was launched around two years ago had originally targeted to make the final close at Rs 250 crore ($40 million then) by mid-2014. However, this got delayed as the firm had to incorporate certain changes in its private placement memorandum and refile with securities market regulator SEBI. Domestic funds need to register under SEBI's AIF norms. Vora said the VC firm is presently raising money only from domestic investors including family offices, HNIs and institutions. “One of India’s lead institutions has committed to invest up to Rs 40 crore in our fund. Technically, the fund will announce closure by March 17 (2016) but we may choose to do it earlier. Some of the most marquee names of corporate India are participants in the fund and remain closely associated with Sixth Sense,” Vora shared. Sixth Sense Ventures has previously invested in three companies. In December 2014, it made its debut investment in luxury watches retailer Ethos Ltd. In January this year, it put money in Cross Roads India Assistance Pvt Ltd, a road side assistance provider for cars and two wheelers. In August, it joined several others to co-invest in media group NDTV 's ecommerce venture Gadgets 360 degree. It is also close to investing in another unnamed firm. 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 (KKEL), which runs Kangaroo Kids Preschool and Billabong High International School; Vini Cosmetics, an FMCG 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://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Ace-equity-analyst-Nikhil-Vora-invests-in-road-assistance-co/articleshow/45802727.cms MUMBAI: Former IDFC Securities MD and equity analyst Nikhil Vora's venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures has made a minority investment in the country's largest road assistance company Cross Roads India Assistance (CRIA). Vora's consumer-centric fund will be the first institutional investor in the 15-year-old company that assists people in case of vehicle breakdowns. Vora's fund is said to have invested just under Rs 10 crore for a minority stake in the company, which employs 500 people and operates across 23 cities currently. "Our investment is expected to help them develop a national footprint," Vora told TOI. "Cross Roads is the oldest, largest and the only such road assistance company in a vastly under-penetrated market," he added without disclosing the size of investment. The deal is consistent with Sixth Sense's investment strategy of chasing early-stage growth companies focused on "tomorrow's consumer". India has about 25 million cars, closely tracking UK's 30 million. But the domestic road assistance market is just 1% penetrated against 100% in the UK.

https://www.vccircle.com/sixth-sense-makes-series-investment-roadside-car-assistance-co-cross-roads/