ITC pumps Rs 150 million into start-up investment arm Fireside Ventures

In the past few years, most of the FMCG majors have started investing in start-ups

Diversified conglomerate ITC has invested around Rs 150 million in Fireside Ventures, which is a fund that infuses money in consumer-based start-ups. “We do have a corpus for investing in start-ups either directly or through a fund. We have recently invested in Fireside Ventures. This is an internal corpus, so we have kept aside some funds at the moment but depending on the opportunity it can be scaled up,” Sanjiv Puri, managing director at ITC Ltd, told Business Standard.

Asked if ITC would be only incubating these start-ups or make them acquisition targets as well, Puri said, “Both are possible.