The Venture Intelligence Blog

ET quotes Venture Intelligence data on FMCG startups taking on industry giants: The rising wave of consumer startups has triggered a surge in investments this year. Data from research platform Venture Intelligence show $230 million was infused into consumer product startups in just the first three quarters of this year, as compared with $78 million all through 2016.  The article also quoted other interesting stats on the industry: Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.

Until 2014, Zephyr Peacock India 's (ZP India) major investments were mostly focused on B2B and industrial sectors - in companies like 20Cube Logistics, Trimax IT Infrastructure, Pennar Engineered Building Systems and E to E Transportation Infrastructure. Post 2015, the firm's portfolio seems to have taken on a more consumer bent - adding student loans focused MPower Financing, Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance and now, ready-to-cook food service Fingerlix . We asked Zephyr Peacock India Managing Partner Mukul Gulati what is attracting the firm towards consumer businesses at this point and to Fingerlix (in which ZP India has just invested $3-M) in particular. There is no planned shift to consumer sector. We like businesses with sustainable competitive advantages and a path to market leadership. Sometimes, these businesses sell to other businesses, while other times they target consumers. We continue to seek differentiated business models across the consumer and b2...

Business Today has a cover story on various regional Indian FMCG companies - including Vi-John | Havmor | Sakthi Masala | Mapro | Dantadhavanachoornam | Sosyo | Wagh Bakri | Kalimark - that are giving their MNC competitors a run for their money. In the Rs 350-crore male grooming market, sophisticated brands such as Gillette and Axe may be more visible, but in the basic category of shaving creams, Vi-John sells more than twice as many units as Gillette, according to Nielsen India data shared by an industry source. ...Wagh Bakri, which has a share of almost 50 per cent of the Gujarat market, and around seven per cent of the Indian market for branded tea, is steadily becoming a national brand, as it already has a presence in more than seven states. ...Also on our list of tenacious brands are Sosyo, a soft drink brand, and Havmor ice cream, both popular in Gujarat, Mapro fruit products from Maharashtra, soft drink maker Kalimark and Sakthi Masala from Tamil Nadu, H...