Roots Ventures is a Mumbai-based, early-stage, sector-agnostic venture capital firm founded in 2018 by Japan Vyas and Ravinder Vashist. Vyas previously headed the alternative platform of IDFC Investment Advisors and co-founded Sixth Sense Ventures — and was an early Paytm investor through his IDFC fund — while Vashist held senior roles at IDFC IA, Banyantree Finance and Yes Bank. While sector-agnostic, the fund has a pronounced bias towards consumer and consumer-tech companies in its early-stage bucket.
The thesis
Roots Ventures' philosophy is 'Investor First' — it deliberately stays away from the crowd, avoids the glamour of investing in go-go sectors and refuses to succumb to FOMO, on the belief that the best opportunities are where no one is looking. As a multi-stage, sector-agnostic fund, it has leaned into niche, long-term consumer brands: health foods and drinks, personal care, pet care, D2C and consumer-tech platforms. The team also emphasises a founder-first approach: the firm's website carries endorsements from founders of Smytten, Stockgro and Just Herbs praising its conviction, equal-partner conduct and support through exits.
Fund and stage
Roots Ventures is a Category II AIF investing across early-stage, growth-stage and small and mid-listed investments. Its maiden fund targeted Rs 200 crore with a Rs 100 crore greenshoe option, as reported by The Economic Times and YourStory in 2019, with Vijay Shekhar Sharma — the Paytm founder Vyas had backed years earlier — as anchor investor, alongside Pravin Gandhi (Seedfund), Sandeep Kohli and Kushal and Chaitanya Desai. The fund writes up to Rs 6 crore in early-stage ventures and up to Rs 25 crore in growth-stage entities. Portfolio trackers place its current fund size around $38 million with roughly 26 portfolio companies.
Portfolio highlights
Its portfolio centres on consumer brands and consumer tech: Smytten (Roots was its first institutional investor and followed on in every subsequent round), Just Herbs, Daily Objects, Captain Zack (pet care), Coccoon, Teamonk, Plant Power, SupaFood, MishtFood, Kaarya Naturals, REMITR, Railofy, Raaho, Stockgro and space startup Manastu Space. The pattern is unconventional consumer bets — D2C, mobility-adjacent, pet grooming, health foods — in categories the fund believes are under-invested rather than fashionable.
People and programs
The core team comprises Japan Vyas, Ravinder Vashist and Bhavik Mehta, bringing multi-decade investing experience across business cycles. There is no accelerator or fellowship programme; Roots Ventures operates as a relationship-driven venture fund where founder endorsement and repeat follow-ons are the retention mechanics. Its anchor investor relationship with Vijay Shekhar Sharma also gives portfolio founders proximity to one of India's best-known consumer-tech builders.
Why it matters for founders
If you are building a consumer brand or consumer-tech business outside the flavour-of-the-season sectors — D2C, health and wellness, pet care, niche mobility — Roots Ventures is a specialist early-stage backer that leads first institutional rounds and follows on with conviction, as Smytten and Just Herbs demonstrate. For founders who value a founder-first, no-backseat-driving partner over a brand-name logo, its Rs 6 crore early-stage tickets are squarely in range.