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https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/consumer-businesses-are-potentially-disruptive-not-innovative-says-founder-and-ceo-of-sixth-sense-ventures/1267870/ Sixth Sense Ventures, which is in the process of raising Rs. 350 crore for its second fund, SSIO-II, believes consumer-centric companies will increasingly be the disruptors. Sixth Sense Ventures, which is in the process of raising Rs. 350 crore for its second fund, SSIO-II, believes consumer-centric companies will increasingly be the disruptors. SSV founder and CEO Nikhil Vora tells FE’s Bhavik Nair that newer players continue to capture a disproportionate share of the growth. Excerpts: Many young entrepreneurs are taking on established players… The potential to disrupt is huge because the consumer business in India has been very static for the last 50-70 years. That is why the bigger companies grew larger; not because of their brands but on the back of the distribution strength. This is now being dismantled with distribution channels opening up and you will see many new brands which now have shelf space. We see a lot of hyper competition in the consumer branded space over the next 5-10 years. It’s happening in various categories such as liquor, dips and sauces, foods, personal care. All consumer companies work on a minimum 35-40% return on net worth, a very high return. Everyone works on an operating margin of 20%-plus. We have seen many disruptions in IT. How do you see that in the consumer-centric space? What you see in tech businesses are not so much of a disruption, but innovations. However, consumer businesses are potentially disruptive and not innovative. A Fogg was not an innovation but they disrupted the deodrant category. A Go Cheese was not a disruption in the value-added dairy category; they got shelf space against an Amul on one side and a Nestle on the other side, which I think was a disruptive element. So, I think you will see a lot more brand disruptions happen and the challenge for leaders is that they hate to create disruptions on their own. While the leaders will continue to grow, thanks to the entire size of the market, there is also a disproportionately larger growth that is getting captured by the newer players. You are saying: “You only require capital twice!” Does that stand true even now? Completely true! In all my years in the consumer space, I haven’t generally seen a business in the consumer domain which requires perpetual funding. If the businesses grow, they won’t require capital again. The moment a business gets funded on its own, there are enough cashflows to support its existing businesses. There are very few consumer businesses which in their life-cycle journey will require capital. You look at any listed consumer company in this country, not a single company would have raised capital. That is true even for private companies which have scaled up. How are you so convinced about SaffronStays in the micro-hospitality segment when there is an Airbnb out there? There are two things when we looked at investing in SaffronStays. One is this premise that property seduces. Everyone who has excess capital possibly has a second home somewhere. While they buy the second home, it is not a yield-generating asset and it is not even being properly maintained and used. What SaffronStays does is it to take all these properties and give them a premium look and feel. We have been able to manage close to 50 bungalows and we think it will become 500 in three years. We believe that people want to travel in groups. The ability to standardise the locations and create a premium feel and at some stage soon, create a membership model is something that we are excited about. Are valuations as high in the private space as they are in the listed consumer space? First, we have to understand why the consumer businesses are expensive. Fundamentally, consumer businesses get funded only twice — at seed stage and at growth stage. If it requires funding a third time, it is not a consumer business. When a business’s requirement of capital is only twice in its life cycle, it becomes a seller’s market because it is not in any desperation to raise capital. Consumer companies don’t require capital after a certain level of growth. If they don’t require capital, then the only way for a potential investor to buy into a consumer company is to buy out an existing investor or put in the value at a much higher level. Therefore, the value of these businesses becomes expensive. As far as the private space is concerned, the valuation is almost similar compared to the listed space. Sometimes, a sheer scarcity premium makes the private space a bit more expensive.

https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/sixth-sense-ventures-expects-to-raise-rs-100-cr-in-next-two-months-for-its-second-fund/1266471/ Sixth Sense Ventures, a consumer-centric venture fund founded by Nikhil Vora, former managing director at IDFC Securities, is expecting to raise `100 crore in the next two months for its second fund, named SSIO-II, which has a size of Rs. 350 crore. The fund has already received commitments worth Rs. 250 crore so far. “We have already received commitments worth Rs. 250 crore from almost 70 investors. We will hit Rs. 350 crore in the next two months. We are just three months into it right now and we have done six investments. By August, we would have invested Rs. 75 crore,” said Vora, founder and CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures. The SSIO-II fund, which will have an average investment ticket in the range of Rs. 15-20 crore, is looking to make investments in 14-15 different firms, of which six have already received investments. These six firms belong to a diverse set of segments like education, logistics, healthcare, oral care, packaging solutions and hospitality. SSIO-II’s latest investment, of $2 million, is in a company named SaffronStays, which curates and manages hospitality operations, reservations, branding and marketing for private vacation homes owned by high net worth individuals (HNIs). Sixth Sense Ventures’ first fund SSIO-I had made investments in 10 companies —two of which are in the listed space while eight are private. The firm claims that 90% of the participants in the maiden fund have also invested in the second fund. SIDBI, which had invested close to Rs. 23 crore in SSIO-I, has committed Rs. 50 crore in the second fund, Vora explained. “In the first fund, SIDBI had the first right on capital and had capped its return at 14% internal rate of return (IRR). In the second fund, SIDBI has committed `50 crore. Here they are not capping their returns. We have exited one investment — JHS Svendgaard Laboratories. This was our smallest investment. We sold it at 7x and that’s how we have returned money to SIDBI,” he told FE. The rest of the investors in the SSIO-I fund will be receiving their money in the next six months, Vora added. SSIO-I, which had a size of Rs. 120 crore and participation from 45 investors, has been closed for investments for almost a year now. Over the next few years, the fund will be focussing on exits, of which the first is likely to come in the next three to four months. “I think there will be at least four to five investments which will be ripe for exit in the next couple of years. I think there will be one large divestment in the next three to four months,” Vora indicated.

https://www.bloombergquint.com/alpha-ideas-2020/alpha-ideas-20-20-why-nikhil-vora-thinks-hindustan-foods-is-still-a-great-opportunity#gs.sI_Ea6c Hindustan Foods Ltd.’s stock price has jumped eight times in two years, but Nikhil Vora believes it is “still a great opportunity”. The manufacturer of nutritional foods, cereal foods, and soya beans could hit the Rs 1,000-crore revenue milestone by 2020, Vora, the founder and chief executive officer of Sixth Sense Ventures, said at the Alpha Ideas 20-20 conference in Mumbai.

"I think we will have an opportunity to be a $0.5 billion (around Rs 3,000 crore) company by 2022."

Nikhil Vora, CEO, Sixth Sense Ventures

Hindustan Foods had posted revenue of Rs 37 crore in 2017. Sixth Sense Ventures and associates hold a 20 percent stake in the company.

The company can deliver 22-23 percent return on investments from 15-16 percent earlier, Vora added.

https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-nikhil-vora-led-sixth-sense-ventures-invests-in-micro-hospitality-startup/ Sixth Sense Ventures has struck a new deal in the country's growing micro-hospitality sector, Nikhil Vora, founder of the consumer sector-focussed venture capital firm told VCCircle. The VC firm has invested in SaffronStays, Vora said without disclosing the investment amount. However, a person close to the transaction said that the deal value was $2 million. The company will use the funds to boost its growth, hire talent, and expand its inventory in a growing micro-hospitality industry that could be pegged at $40 billion, said Vora. SaffronStays, which was launched by Devendra Parulekar and Tejas Parulekar in 2015, curates and manages hospitality operations, reservations, branding and marketing for private vacation homes owned by high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). The company currently operates 45 homes across six states in the country and hosts over 1,500 guests every month. SaffronStays has expanded from five employees to 22 in two years and has also trained over 150 caretakers, supervisors, managers, and housekeeping staff members across the country, with a dedicated training centre in Ulwe, Maharashtra. "Sixth Sense Ventures' experience with consumer-facing businesses is something we will heavily lean on in our next growth stage," said Tejas, co-founder, SaffronStays. The premium homestay market in India is expected to grow as Indian travellers are on the cusp of becoming experiential and demanding by looking for unique travel experiences, said Vora. "Weekend plans to de-stress and bond with families and friends have been largely trending in cities, and premium homestays located within 3 hours from city limits make for the most preferred short holiday destinations," added Vora. Homestays have become an alternative to hotels for travellers and large online hotel aggregators such as MakeMyTrip and Yatra have entered this space. The sector has also seen challenges as last year the shutdown of homestay aggregator Stayzilla, once touted as India’s Airbnb and backed by venture capital firms Nexus and Matrix Partners, triggered discussions on the pointless pursuit of discounts-based growth over unit economics and the rat race of valuations. Sixth Sense Ventures The VC firm's first fund had a corpus of Rs 125 crore with investments in 10 companies. These include gaming arcade operator Smaaash Entertainment Pvt. Ltd; Hindustan Foods Ltd, which makes PepsiCo Inc.’s Kurkure snack brand; oral care products company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt. Ltd, and hyperlocal logistics service provider Grab. The second fund has a target corpus of Rs 350 crore ($54 million) and was aiming to mark the first close by March this year. Sixth Sense made two investments from its second fund in March – AVG Logistics and Eupheus Learning. Last month, the VC firm marked its foray into the healthcare sector by investing in Fullife Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, which sells sports nutrition supplements under the brand Fast & Up. Vora also invests in his personal capacity. His most recent bet was in a Mumbai-based specialty food ingredients maker. Some of his other investments include glitter-powder maker Advance Syntex Ltd; Fogg deodorant maker Vini Cosmetics; sanitary napkins maker Soothe Healthcare; sports-focussed digital display solutions firm Technology Frontiers; and aircraft maintenance and repair company AirWorks, to name a few. Vora was also an early investor in One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of digital wallet firm Paytm. He sold his stake in One97 to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in May last year, reaping almost 75-fold gains. Around the same time, he exited Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd when it was acquired by EuroKids International Pvt. Ltd.

https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-nikhil-vora-led-sixth-sense-ventures-invests-in-micro-hospitality-startup/ Sixth Sense Ventures has struck a new deal in the country’s growing micro- hospitality sector, Nikhil Vora, founder of the consumer sector- focussed venture capital firm told VCCircle. The VC firm has invested in SaffronStays, Vora said without disclosing the investment amount. However, a person close to the transaction said that the deal value was $2 million. The company will use the funds to boost its growth, hire talent, and expand its inventory in a growing micro-hospitality industry that could be pegged at $40 billion, said Vora. SaffronStays, which was launched by Devendra Parulekar and Tejas Parulekar in 2015, curates and manages hospitality operations, reservations, branding and marketing for private vacation homes owned by high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). The company currently operates 45 homes across six states in the country and hosts over 1,500 guests every month. SaffronStays has expanded from five employees to 22 in two years and has also trained over 150 caretakers, supervisors, managers, and housekeeping staff members across the country, with a dedicated training centre in Ulwe, Maharashtra. “Sixth Sense Ventures’ experience with consumer-facing businesses is something we will heavily lean on in our next growth stage,” said Tejas, co-founder, SaffronStays. The premium homestay market in India is expected to grow as Indian travellers are on the cusp of becoming experiential and demanding by looking for unique travel experiences, said Vora. “Weekend plans to de-stress and bond with families and friends have been largely trending in cities, and premium homestays located within 3 hours from city limits make for the most preferred short holiday destinations,” added Vora. Homestays have become an alternative to hotels for travellers and large online hotel aggregators such as MakeMyTrip and Yatra have entered this space. The sector has also seen challenges as last year the shutdown of homestay aggregator Stayzilla, once touted as India’s Airbnb and backed by venture capital firms Nexus and Matrix Partners, triggered discussions on the pointless pursuit of discounts-based growth over unit economics and the rat race of valuations. Sixth Sense Ventures The VC firm’s first fund had a corpus of Rs 125 crore with investments in 10 companies. These include gaming arcade operator Smaaash Entertainment Pvt. Ltd; Hindustan Foods Ltd, which makes PepsiCo Inc.’s Kurkure snack brand; oral care products company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt. Ltd, and hyperlocal logistics service provider Grab. The second fund has a target corpus of Rs 350 crore ($54 million) and was aiming to mark the first close by March this year. Sixth Sense made two investments from its second fund in March – AVG Logistics and Eupheus Learning. Last month, the VC firm marked its foray into the healthcare sector by investing in Fullife Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, which sells sports nutrition supplements under the brand Fast & Up. Vora also invests in his personal capacity. His most recent bet was in a Mumbai-based specialty food ingredients maker. Some of his other investments include glitter-powder maker Advance Syntex Ltd; Fogg deodorant maker Vini Cosmetics; sanitary napkins maker Soothe Healthcare; sports-focussed digital display solutions firm Technology Frontiers; and aircraft maintenance and repair company AirWorks, to name a few. Vora was also an early investor in One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of digital wallet firm Paytm. He sold his stake in One97 to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in May last year, reaping almost 75-fold gains. Around the same time, he exited Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd when it was acquired by EuroKids International Pvt. Ltd

https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/startups/saffronstays-raises-about-2m-funding-from-sixth-sense-ventures/65028242 Micro-hospitality startup SaffronStays has about $2 million from consumer-centric venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures. The pre-series A investment marks the first institutional round into the firm and will help SaffronStays expand the number of holiday properties under its platform. Founded in 2015 by Devendra and Tejas Parulekar, SaffronStays curates and manages hospitality operations, reservations, branding and marketing for private vacation homes owned by high networth individuals. The firm currently operates 45 homes across six states in India and claims to host over 1,500 guests every month. “We are excited to have Sixth Sense Ventures as our partners in our entrepreneurial journey. We hope to use this money to expand our footprint, work on innovative business models, strengthen our operations and improve our technology backbone,” said Devendra Parulekar, Founder of SaffronStays. As part of this investment, Nikhil Vora, Founder & CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures will join the board of SaffronStays. Hospitality being a high margin sector, SaffronStays claims to be cash flow positive at a unit level even as it clocks about Rs 5 crore in annual revenues. “The Indian travel market is massive and yet underserved. We believe that SaffronStays is very well equipped to capture this market with its exclusivity and well-curated offerings and parallely create an opportunity for homeowners to monetize their most valuable and expensive asset,” said Vora on the investment. Currently operational around Mumbai, Pune, Goa and a few locations around Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, the firm is looking to scale to about 125 properties by the end of 2018 even as it looks to scale to over 1,000 homes over the next 5 years.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/sixth-sense-backs-sports-nutrition-co/articleshow/64676052.cms Domestic consumer-centric venture fund Sixth Sense Ventures' Nikhil Vora has joined India's ace investor Rakesh Jhunjunwala as co-investor in former Lupin president Satish Khanna's Fullife Healthcare, a Mumbai-based nutrition company focused on the fast-growing preventive healthcare and active living segment. After the transaction, the three lead shareholders - the Khanna family, Jhunjunwala and Sixth Sense - will be promoters in the company. Sixth Sense will own a stake of around 10% in the company. Its first fund Sixth Sense India Opportunities - I has completed 10 investments, while it has closed two investments from the second fund so far. Sixth Sense Ventures has invested around $3 million in Fulllife.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/consumer-focused-vc-fund-sixth-sense-puts-rs-15-crore-in-fullife-healthcare/articleshow/64676152.cms Marking its first investment in the nutrition and healthcare space, consumer focused venture capital fund, Sixth Sense Ventures has invested about $2 million (between Rs. 10-15 crore) in Fullife Healthcare which sells sports nutrition supplements. The investment will see Sixth Sense pick up a 10% stake in the 5-year-old company which also counts veteran market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as its angel investor. Jhunjhunwala had invested about Rs. 25-30 crore in the firm about 3 years ago. Founded by Satish Khanna, the former group president of healthcare firm Lupin, Fullife Healthcare sells sports nutrition supplements with a focus on innovative delivery patented formats. The firm sells its products across 20 countries and has been scaling its growth in India in the emerging ‘active life’ segment under the brand ‘Fast & Up’. “Fullife is among the first players in the nascent category of sports nutrition i in India. While globally the market is about $45 billion, in India it is less than $400 million. The capability to be a first mover in such a market offers Fullife the opportunity to grow to an Rs. 500-700-crore business over the next 3 years,” said Nikhil Vora, CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures. Post this investment, the promoters along with Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Sixth Sense Ventures will be the lead shareholders in the firm. Currently, non-Indian markets form the bulk of Fullife Healthcare’s revenues with products being marketed globally. However, the firm has also been building its distribution channels in India through nutrition shops and organised pharma chains to enable steady supply of its products here. This will aid the firm to reach its target revenue of Rs. 75-80 crore in FY19 having clocked about Rs. 50 crore in FY18. Currently, products under Fast & Up are being used by the Indian Cricket team even as the firm has begun approaching global soccer leagues for usage of its supplements.

https://www.vccircle.com/sixth-sense-ventures-bets-on-rakesh-jhunjhunwala-backed-sports-nutrition-firm/ Consumer-focused venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures has marked its foray into the healthcare sector by investing in Fullife Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, which sells sports nutrition supplements under the brand Fast & Up. According to a press statement, Sixth Sense has picked up 10% stake by investing around Rs 10-15 crore ($1.4-2 million) in the Mumbai-based firm. Fullife, which sells its products in 20 countries, also counts ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala among its backers. Jhunjhunwala had invested an undisclosed amount in 2013 and holds 25% stake in the firm, according to VCCEdge, the research arm of News Corp VCCircle. “Fullife is amongst the first players in the nascent category of sports nutrition in India and we feel sports, health, active living will be the centre stage for future of healthcare,” said Nikhil Vora, founder and chief executive of Sixth Sense. Fullife was started in 2009 by Satish Khanna, the former group president of drugmaker Lupin. The company had posted net sales of Rs 18.2 crore in the financial year 2016-17, a tad higher than the Rs 17.6 crore it recorded the year before that, according to VCCEdge. Sixth Sense Ventures The investment in Fullife marks Sixth Sense’s third bet from its latest fund. The previous investments from Fund-II were in third-party logistics provider AVG Logistics and Eupheus Learning, which develops textbooks and their digitised versions to integrate class and home learning. Both deals were reported in March this year. The second fund has a target corpus of Rs 350 crore ($54 million) and was aiming to mark the first close by March this year. Sixth Sense’s first fund had a corpus of Rs 125 crore and backed 10 companies. These included gaming arcade operator Smaaash Entertainment Pvt. Ltd; Hindustan Foods Ltd, which makes PepsiCo Inc.’s Kurkure snack brand; oral care products company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt. Ltd, and hyperlocal logistics service provider Grab. Sports nutrition space There have not been many deals in the sports nutrition space in India of late. In January this year, Bengaluru-based sports nutrition brand DAAKI raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Rohan Agila, a business partner at Capvent Advisors. Genmedic Healthcare Pvt Ltd, which makes vegetarian nutritional supplements under the Super Gummy brand, had in January 2017 raised an undisclosed amount from Brand Capital, the ad-for-equity investment arm of media firm Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL). In February 2017, BM Vyas, the former managing director of India’s largest dairy company Amul, had launched a protein-based nutritional products company, Nutrisattva. A few established dairy firms have recently launched protein supplements, including whey, which is a high-margin business. While Amul markets its protein range under Amul PRO, and Parag Milk Foods sells its products under the Avvatar brand. According to a 2015 study by industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) and business consulting firm RNCOS, India’s dietary supplements market, which was worth about $2 billion at the time, was estimated to double by 2020.

https://www.vccircle.com/exclusive-sixth-senses-nikhil-vora-backs-gourmet-food-maker/ Nikhil Vora, founder of consumer sector-focussed venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures, has invested in a Mumbai-based specialty food ingredients maker, a person privy to the development told VCCircle. Vora has invested an undisclosed amount in in Saucery Foods Pvt. Ltd, the person said, asking not to be named. The company offers a variety of spreads, dips and sauces under the Saucery brand. More financial details of the deal couldn’t be ascertained. The company was launched in 2015 by Gayatri Bhatia, who worked with consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever Ltd before starting the venture. The company claims its products are free from chemicals, preservatives, artificial flavouring or taste-enhancers. The brand has presence in modern trade stores in Mumbai including Nature’s Basket, Hypercity and Foodhall. Spice Route Legal acted as the legal adviser to the company for the transaction, the person cited above said. Email queries sent to Vora, Saucery and Spice Route Legal did not elicit any response till the time of publishing this report. Vora’s previous bets Vora recently invested in his personal capacity in Gujarat-based Advance Syntex Ltd, which operates under the brand name Midas Glitter. He was an early investor in One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of digital wallet firm Paytm. He sold his stake in One97 to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in May last year, reaping almost 75-fold gains. Around the same time, Vora also exited Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd when the operator of pre-schools and K-12 schools was acquired by EuroKids International Pvt. Ltd. Vora is also an investor in Fogg deodorant maker Vini Cosmetics, which raised funds from private equity firm WestBridge Capital Partners in September 2017. He has also invested in Noida-based Soothe Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, the firm behind Paree brand of sanitary napkins. Besides, Vora has invested in Avigo Capital-backed sports-focussed digital display solutions firm Technology Frontiers and aircraft maintenance and repair company AirWorks, which is backed by private equity firms New Enterprise Associates and GTI Capital. Separately, Vora’s Sixth Sense Ventures struck two investments from its second fund in March – AVG Logistics and Eupheus Learning. The second fund has a target corpus of Rs 350 crore ($54 million) and was aiming to mark the first close by March this year. Sixth Sense’s first fund had a corpus of Rs 125 crore and backed 10 companies. These include gaming arcade operator Smaaash Entertainment Pvt. Ltd; Hindustan Foods Ltd, which makes PepsiCo Inc.’s Kurkure snack brand; oral care products company JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Pvt. Ltd, and hyperlocal logistics service provider Grab. Other deals in food sector The packaged food segment, particularly the ready-to-cook category, has seen considerable investor interest in the recent past. Last month, Y-Cook India Pvt Ltd raised $5 million in its Series B round of funding led by Dutch impact fund Oikocredit and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal-backed venture capital firm 021 Capital. Around the same time, US-based private equity firm General Atlantic LLC inked a deal to pick up a majority stake in a Mumbai-based packaged food products manufacturer, marking its first control transaction in the country. In January, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia invested Rs 152 crore ($23 million) in Southern Health Foods, which markets its products under the brand ‘Manna Foods’. In October last year, Veeba Foods, another gourmet food maker, had raised over $6 million (Rs 40 crore) in its Series C round of funding led by existing investor Verlinvest, a private Belgian family investment company.