LetsVenture Angel Fund marks first exit via cloud kitchen Big Spoon secondary deal

LetsVenture’s maiden angel fund, LV Angel Fund, has scored its first exit for accredited angel investors. The Nisarg Shah led syndicate has sold 20% of its holding in Ahmedabad-based cloud kitchen startup BigSpoon Foods to the startup’s existing investor Urmin Family Office.

Investors who backed the syndicate’s investment in BigSpoon received a 5x return in 12 months, Shah said, speaking exclusively to TechCircle.

Shah did not disclose details of the transaction.

The Nisarg Shah syndicate invested an undisclosed sum in a seed round in September 2019.  In January this year, Big Spoon raised $200,000 in angel funding from Urmin Family Office, Lemonade Ventures along with investors from the LetsVenture platform and other angel investors.

“I backed Big Spoon primarily because of the strong founding team and their complementary skill-sets and the unit economics make sense in the cloud kitchen space. Beyond that, for me it was about getting involved with the founders and helping them reach the next crucial milestones,” Shah said.

Shah's syndicate has been live on LetsVenture since September 2019. It invests in startups across seed and pre-Series A rounds. Since launch, this syndicate has made six investments alongside venture capital firms such as Social Capital, 3one4 Capital, Parampara Capital, and Beenext Capital. Nisarg has also invested in over a dozen startups in his personal capacity.

Urmin Group is a six-decade old food, beverages, and hospitality-focused enterprise. Its product portfolio comprises brands like StarNuts, Ringo, Bansiram and Tingles.

Founded in 2019 by Kapil Mathrani, Rohan Bhatt, and Poojan Thakkar, BigSpoon focuses on tier II cities with three brands -- Makhni Brothers (North Indian cuisine), Oven & Grill (pizzas, burgers, sandwiches) and Meals101 (global cuisines bowl meals).

It is currently present in three states Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with outlets in Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Jaipur, and Indore. The startup is in the process of expanding to Maharashtra with the first kitchen coming up in Pune.

According to Shah, BigSpoon operates at an ARR (annualized run rate of) of Rs 8 crore with over 70,000 transactions.

“At Big spoon, our vision is to minimize the delta between fine-dine and home-delivery experience for the customer, especially in Tier-2 cities. We should be closing out on our new fundraise soon and start expanding to more cities and brands, while investing in smart technology for automation and consumer experience,” Mathrani said.

The company is currently in the process of raising a pre-Series round of $2 million.

LetsVenture, an angel investment platform, is backed by venture capital firms Accel and Chiratae Ventures, and high networth individuals such as Nandan Nilekani, Ratan Tata, Rishad Premji, Mohandas Pai, Sharad Sharma and Anupam Mittal.

LV Angel Fund is a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-registered Category-I alternative investment fund (AIF). It has assets under management of over Rs 238 crore and almost 900 accredited investors.

The platform presently has 29 syndicates. Syndicates allow angel investors to join the investing circle of a lead investor, and solicit access to deals being led by him.

Founded in 2013, LetsVenture has enabled over Rs 1,174 crore of investments across 300 rounds through its 6500-strong angel investor network, 100 micro VC funds, and syndicates.

Apart from LetsVenture, US-based investment crowdfunding platform AngelList also runs a syndicate programme in India.