Sequoia India and Southeast Asia launch two new funds totaling $2.85 billion

This article comes fromTechcrunch, original author: Manish Singh

Odaily Translator |

This article comes from

, original author: Manish Singh

Odaily Translator |

Sequoia India and Southeast Asia (Sequoia India and Southeast Asia), a subsidiary of Sequoia Capital, announced the launch of two new funds, Sequoia Capital India Early Venture and Growth Fund (approximately US$2 billion) and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia Exclusive Fund (scale about $850 million). The venture capital firm is doubling down on the region as funding becomes increasingly difficult to come by, with a fund the size of most of its peers unmatched.

The Indian venture capital firm started investing in India 16 years ago. Sequoia India and Southeast Asia has 11 managing directors in the region. In the past 18 months, nine of its portfolio startups, including Freshworks, GoJek and Truecaller, went public.

According to an analysis, the public listing of the participating projects has brought Sequoia India and Southeast Asia nearly $4 billion in realized and unrealized returns based on current market capitalization. Sequoia India and Southeast Asia closed three more fundraisings in the past two years, including a $525 million venture capital fund and a $825 million growth fund.

"The fundraising comes at a time when markets are cooling after a long bull market and demonstrates our strong commitment to the region and our Limited Partners' commitment to India and India," the firm wrote in a blog post. Confidence in Southeast Asia's long-term growth prospects."

The company said it intends to "double down" on the region, where it operates several programs, including Surge, which supports very early-stage companies, and Spark, which offers fellowships to female founders.Sajith Pai, an investor at Blume Ventures, an Indian venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage deals, said, "50 years ago, Sequoia pioneered the modern venture capital firm. Since then, it has continued to innovate to maintain its global presence." The forefront of VC firms across the region. Through innovations like the Scout program and Surge, they have pushed the boundaries of the venture capital model, expanded founders' access to capital, and even cemented their leadership in the space."。

Sequoia India and Southeast Asia are the largest investors in the region, having participated in hundreds of startups. Launched just three years ago, the Surge program has expanded to 112 startups operating in more than a dozen industries. Of the more than 100 startups that have become Indian unicorns, Sequoia Capital has invested in 36 companies.

These new funds, the largest of any investor in the region, could not have come at a better time to close their fundraising. Many startups in the region and beyond are struggling to raise capital as investors reassess the market after a sharp reversal. Sequoia Capital recently advised project founders to strengthen discipline and focus,

The agency has been sounding the alarm for some time now

The firm's portfolio includes social commerce startup Meesho, new bank and payments processor Razorpay, fintech giants CRED and Pine Labs, and Edtech giants Byju's and Unacademy. The agency will continue to focus on traditional business areas such as SaaS and fintech, and will further expand its investment scope to include new areas such as Web3. Most Indian VCs are initially reluctant to back crypto startups, a fact that is easily seen when you look at the shareholding structures of some of the largest Indian crypto companies.

Several Web3 founders pointed out that Sequoia India and Southeast Asia have gained prominence in the hot new investment category in the past two years, having previously invested in Web3 startups such as CoinSwitch Kuber and Polygon. The agency can also use this to prove once again that it has a "diamond hand", that is, it will not sell these crypto companies' tokens immediately after the vesting period expires.In a blog post, the company said, “The start-up and venture capital ecosystem in India and Southeast Asia has come a long way over the past decade and will continue to mature. Valuations and velocity will change with the market. What persists is revenue Value creation in terms of growth, profitability and free cash flow rooted in true innovation, exceptional execution and fanatical focus on customers."The launch of the new funds comes as three startups Sequoia invests in in India and Southeast Asia are facing governance issues. The board of fintech giant BharatPe has found irregularities by a founder. Similar issues arose with Singaporean fashion marketplace Zilingo and Indian social commerce startup Trell.

In at least two of the incidents, Sequoia itself was the whistleblower, holding the company founders accountable, according to people familiar with the matter.