Indian growth story is emerging with strong market and resilient economy under the strong rule of law. According to McKinsey&Company, investing with the socially responsible impact assessment is a proper policy to catalyze, and scale up the methods that improve millions of lives. Indian consumers with large social needs and companies serving them are surfacing as new wealth creators. The greatest value is generated by identifying the trend and investing in promising brands at a very early stage. Sixth Sense Ventures is proud of its ability to spot such trends and take calculated risks to create maximum value for both the investors and investee companies. It offers more than just capital to the investee companies through its unique ecosystem.
A Fund for Consumer Innovations
Sixth Sense Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in growth capital investments. Founded in 2014 and operating from Mumbai, it is India’s first domestic, consumer-centric venture fund. The name ‘Sixth Sense’ indicates the intuition of picking the value trends early. It invests in consumer innovations at an extremely early stage. Investment for them is not a mere passive capital commitment but an active endeavor for the business. Within the core team, it has a cumulative experience of over seventy years in the wider consumer domain which can foresee trends together with deep insights. Its ‘Centre of Excellence’ comprises of the best in class industry leaders as mentors who are passionate about engaging with entrepreneurs. Sixth Sense provides valuable strategic inputs to the investee companies through its strong ecosystem offerings like brand capital and backend capabilities at critical junctures of their growth story.
Sensible Thought Leadership
Nikhil Vora is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sixth Sense Ventures.
Nikhil is regarded as one of the strongest analytical minds in the country with 25 years’ experience in Consumer Domain. These are some of the features in his cap –
- Ex – Managing Director and Head of Research at IDFC Securities
- Voted as India’s No.1 analyst in the Asia Money polls
- Asia’s Best Analyst by the Wall Street Journal
- Thought Leadership Award from IDFC Ltd
- Member participant at the Future Leaders Program at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, London.
- Invited by the ‘Nestle Global Consumer Board’ and ‘Hindustan Unilever’ to evolve a critical and strategic roadmap.
- Amongst the First Investors (Personal capacity) in PayTm (One97); Vini Cosmetics (Fogg), Parag Milk (Go); Kangaroo Kids / Billabong High; BVG Ltd; Purplle.com; Bewakoof; Infinite Analytics; Saucery Brands etc.
In-Depth Intuitive Strategies
Sixth Sense Ventures are known for its several strategies developed by core team with their in-depth analysis and insights from market trends. These strategies start with product specifications which include identifying businesses which have created a unique presence in the large space. In turn, these spaces are selected based their large potential such as sectors dominant with a duopoly. Value Creator strategy seeks to invest early and thereby create the largest value for clients. Risk Appetite is crucial to investment strategy at Sixth Sense and ability to take calculated risks is its core strength.
Unique Products and Services Focused on India
Sixth Sense has developed a unique ecosystem of products and services that are built with the inherent strengths of the company. It has launched two schemes to cater to the needs of different investors.
Sixth Sense India Opportunities I (SSIO I) – It is the first scheme launched in Nov 2014 with a corpus of 118 Cr rupees invested across ten companies. This scheme is representing India’s first consumer-centric domestic venture fund and has already invested in exciting successful ventures. Eight of them have already seen significant up-mark with follow-on investments. SSIO I investments show a very high rate of return at 2.3x MoC with two of listed ones measuring up by seven to nine times within the period of one and half years. The scheme has already started returning capital to investors in its third year.
Sixth Sense India Opportunities II (SSIO II) – It is the second scheme launched in Nov 2017, with a corpus of 250 Cr rupees (+100 Cr green shoe option). This fund has invested in six interesting companies and portfolio is diversified across sectors like Edutech, Healthcare, Supply Chain, and Personal care & Hospitality. The continued trust of investors in the schemes is realized by the fact that eighty percent of SSIO – I investors have committed to invest in SSIO – II as well. SSIO II is currently active and expects to announce close in next 2-3 months.
This scheme is investing in companies for its portfolio with four major factors. The companies operating in large spaces or scope of business with huge potential for growth in the market; the companies owned or managed by first-generation young entrepreneurs are also preferred; Identifying companies offering ‘niche’ products for consumers within the large universe, and companies whose promoters have the ability to take calculated risks are central methodologies.
Forecasting Future Trends
The company develops its strategies based on the next big wave of productive functional growth. Entrepreneurs with entirely diverse skill sets and capabilities, not necessarily the capital, will be the front-runners in growth. The core team is engaged with a vision to create a future organization that gets recognized as a medium for investments for all types including angel, venture, private, and listed in consumer-centric businesses in India. Ultimately, the performance of Sixth Sense Ventures depends on the financial returns it delivers to the investors and whether it gets back repeat business from the promoters supported by the company.
Source :-The 10 Most Valuable Portfolio Management Service Providers in 2018
