The 'No Strings Attached' Investor The former CEO of Dr. Vaidya's, Arjun Vaidya, is now a venture investor with Verlinvest

"I came back from the US in 2013 and started my career as an investor with L Capital Asia (L Catterton). This is a consumer sector fund and I was fortunate enough to meet some of India's best consumer founders. In 2016, I had quit my job to take on my 150 -year-old family legacy of Ayurveda and created an Ayurvedic product brand called Dr. Vaidya's. In four years, Dr. Vaidya's became India's largest online Ayurvedic brand, launching around 80 products, with 2 million plus transacting customers. We raised a Series A from RP Sanjiv Goenka Group. In March 2021, RP Sanjiv Goenka acquired the brand making it one of India's first DTC exits. I now lead a new venture investing strategy for Verlinvest in India from August 2021," said Arjun Vaidya, venture investor, Verlinvest India.

Talking about his investment thesis, he said, "While Verlinvest has traditionally been a growth equity fund, the idea with ventures is to partner earlier with consumer businesses. In this strategy we will invest in consumer businesses across consumer brands, consumer Internet, enablers to e-commerce and e-commerce/new commerce platforms spaces. The ticket size for this strategy will be $1-5 million."

Verlinvest has a large Indian portfolio such as Sula, Veeba, Byju's, Purplle, Wakefit, Epigamia and Heads up for Tails. "We are excited to add more to our growth and venture strategies."

With the evolution of the consumer ecosystem in India, investment outlook has taken a distinct shape. "Consumers are trading up in terms of the brand they consume and e-commerce consumption is at an all-time-high. In these times, I am personally invigorated to see the enthusiasm in the startup space and the quality of founders creating companies. For me, there has never been a more exciting time to be a founder!"

Vaidya has helped many startups grow. Giving an insight into the journey he said, "Other than my role with Verlinvest, as a founder who exited, (turned VC) it is my job to give back to the ecosystem and lend a helping hand to the founders. I have a no-strings-attached formula. I give 12 hours a week to founders and try to solve problems. Over the last six months, I have spoken to 500-plus founders through this initiative and solved real world problems. I also run a podcast called Direct to a Billion Consumers to tell stories of successful DTC founders. From this initiative, many early stage founders have learned trials, tribulations and specificities of building brands."