Consumer Space-Focussed and Seeking Deeper Understanding Sharrp Ventures' Rishabh Mariwala looks to invest through stages

Rishabh Mariwala, founder of Sharrp Ventures, has a reason to smile. The fund's investment Nykaa made a stellar debut on the stock markets. Sharrp Ventures is also invested in Mamaearth while Bira, SleepyCat, MCaffeine, and The Ayurveda Experience are their other prominent investments.

"A majority, around 80 per cent, of our investments are into consumer startups, and that is our core," said Mariwala.

He added, "The remaining are in "non-core', such as fintech, SaaS, healthcare and EV." These are the sectors wherein the fund is looking to stay invested at around 10 per cent of total allocation.

Mariwala is a risk taker. Starting Sharrp Ventures in 2014 as a complete novice, learning along the way with a colleague and till now, where they have more allocations in venture capital. "Over time, our allocation between public markets and PE/VC has moved from 80:20 to 70:30, and now, it's at 60:40."

He does realise that Bitcoin, crypto, real estate are also where they need to be. "It's important that we build our own thought process and understanding in these asset classes first."

On overseas investments, he said, "We have invested in ETFs that allows us to track the US markets."

Going strong and convinced as he is on consumer and consumer tech, what does Mariwala look forward to do as an investor?

"Within our core verticals, we want to go into early stage and then do follow-on rounds. We want to invest through the stages and if there is conviction in the entrepreneur/business, then we want to have our stake. We want to have that follow-on capital and that horsepower to be able to invest in them further and back the entrepreneurs."

"We also want to lead deals. We are now open to being the largest investor, taking a board seat, driving the strategy and being the main anchor to the founder. With one such investment, we will probably be the largest institutional investor," concluded Mariwala.