Godrej Consumer to invest ₹100 crore in consumer startup fund

GCPL will anchor the fund in addition to offering its expertise and experience to help founders build strong, sustainable companies.

The move marks GCPL’s participation in the start-up ecosystem where rivals such as Wipro Consumer Care that runs a fund to invest in startups, as well as Marico Ltd., and Hindustan Unilever Ltd., have lately stepped up investments in new, emerging businesses.

GCPL will invest the money in Early Spring, a ₹300 crore early-stage consumer fund being set up by Spring Marketing Capital. “Spring is creating a skin-in-the-game, brand-first investment franchise that aims to back and support founders who are building the brands of tomorrow,” GCPL said in a statement on Friday.

Spring’s first fund of ₹150 crore continues to invest in companies at Series A and beyond.

The Early Spring Fund will be investing ₹5 crore to ₹20 crore in each company, from seed to pre-series A stage.

“In sync with GCPL’s purpose of bringing the goodness of health and beauty to consumers, we are excited to collaborate with new-age companies in the home and personal care and health and wellness space along with Spring Marketing Capital. We intent to leverage our understanding of consumer space and learnings over the last decades to enable early-stage founders focused on building strong offline as well as online presence by offering differentiated products in India,” said Omar Momin, Head M&A, GCPL.

GCPL sells soaps, mosquito repellants and hair colors in India and markets overseas. In FY22—it reported annual revenue of ₹6,951.56 crore.

Spring is helmed by a trio of founders—former Sequoia Capital executive Raja Ganapathy, advertiser Arun Iyer and Vineet Gupta, who formerly worked at DDB Mudra.

“I would urge new-age companies in these categories to connect with and leverage Spring’s expertise and experience across the spectrum of brand building, manufacturing, product development, distribution and future capital raises,” said Momin.