Sequoia launches accelerator for India, Southeast Asia start-ups

According to a post on LinkedIn, Surge will back 10-20 start-ups in each cohort, with two cohorts planned per year. Each company will receive $1.5 million at the beginning of the program to help with recruitment and make product and growth investments. The program is open to start-ups in any sector.

Surge cohorts will go through a four-month program that includes mentorship from founders of successful regional start-ups including Go-Jek, Byju’s, Carousell, and Oyo. The program’s five modules in China, India, Singapore, and Silicon Valley are intended to give founders exposure to peers in important world technology markets and educate them about the latest trends.

At the end of the program, Sequoia will host a week of meetings between founders and potential investors selected by the GP, including angel investors, seed funds, and VC firms. These investors will also have the opportunity to refer start-ups to Surge and participate in the initial seed round.

Surge is meant to provide founders with support through the most difficult stage of development, when there is little proof of concept, few resources, and the company has to make some of its most critical decisions.

“These early design choices – the first few hires, the early product features, finding the early-adopting customers – can make or break a company,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director at Sequoia. “This stage also coincides with the most challenging fund raises. The process can be draining for founders, who typically go through pre-seed, seed, and multiple bridges before getting to Series A.”

Sequoia is currently investing its sixth India fund, which closed last year at $695 million. The firm has made more than 200 investments in India and Southeast Asia, with recent transactions including Indian education technology developer Eruditus and Indonesian tax compliance business OnlinePajak.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Venture
• Early-stage
• India
• Sequoia Capital
• seed