CONSUMER Sixth Sense invests

in Matrix Partners backed snacks

startup in new bet By Joseph Rai
20 July, 2021
Consumer-focused venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures has
invested in a Matrix Partners backed healthy snacks startup, a person
in the know told VCCircle.

Sixth Sense has invested in Open Secret as part of the startup's Series
A funding round, the person cited above said.

Open Secret, operated by ImmaculateBites Pvt Ltd, raised around Rs

18 crore ($2.5 million) with a bulk of the investment coming in from
Sixth Sense. Matrix Partners also participated in this funding round.

The startup, which was launched by Ahana Gautam and Udit Kejriwal
in 2019, offers cookies mainly for kids that contain nuts and
chocolates as primary ingredients.

Gautam, an alumnus of IIT-Bombay, had earlier worked with Procter &

Gamble and General Mills before floating the venture. Kejriwal, an IIT-
Kharagpur graduate, had been previously associated with P&G and
McKinsey.

Prior to this funding round, Open Secret had raised an undisclosed

amount from Matrix Partners and a clutch of affluent individuals
including Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Snapdeal founders
Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal and Godrej Consumer Products CEO
Vivek Gambhir had also invested then.
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 Emails sent to Open Secret, Sixth Sense and Matrix Partners did not
elicit an immediate response.

Sixth Sense was founded in 2014 by Nikhil Vora, the former managing
director and co-head of research at IDFC Securities. He was also an
early investor in Paytm parent One97 Communications Ltd and
walked away with a 75-fold gain on the investment by selling his
stake to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Sixth Sense raised Rs 125 crore for the first fund and had a target
corpus of Rs 350 crore for the second fund, which exceeded Rs 500
crore when it marked the final close in 2018.

Investments in Veeba Foods, Soothe Healthcare (Paree), LEAP India,

Fullife, and Eupheus Learning are some other examples of the firm’s
successful bets over the years.

Last year, VCCircle reported that Sixth Sense was floating its third
consumer-focused venture capital fund that will aim to tap into an
additional set of investors and raise far more money than its
predecessor vehicles.
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