Sequoia raises $1.35b for India, Southeast Asia

The firm closed its latest venture capital fund at $525 million and secured $825 million for a growth-stage vehicle - in line with targets set earlier this year. Endowments and foundations represent the majority of LPs.

Sequoia raised $890 million in the previous cycle. This included $695 million for Sequoia Capital India VI, which closed in August 2018. The discrepancy between the two figures has not been explained. However, Sequoia has form in upsizing funds. The firm raised $530 million for its fourth India vehicle in 2014 and subsequently increased the corpus to $695 million. It reportedly ended up at $850 million. Fund V closed at $920 million in 2016.

Sequoia India launched its debut seed fund last year and is said to have raised around $200 million. This followed the roll-out of Surge, an accelerator program aimed at start-ups that are either based in or targeting India and Southeast Asia. 

The latest cycle differs from its predecessors in that there are separate pools of capital for venture and growth. This reflects an expansion in later-stage investment opportunities, with the number of funding rounds above $200 million increasing in recent years. The firm’s China affiliate already operates in this way. On a global level, Sequoia also has a growth fund of $8 billion that backs existing portfolio companies in the later stages. It is active in Asia.

Shailendra Singh, a managing director at Sequoia India, announced the latest fundraise in a LinkedIn post. He added that hyper-competition caused by growing pools of VC capital has led to high cash burn as well as challenges in achieving profitability and scale over an expected timeframe. This has contributed to criticisms of rapid cost-cutting during economic downturns. 

Singh also said that Sequoia sees promising trends in the region as increasing incomes, rising internet penetration and the adoption of new technologies should facilitate the emergence of large technology companies in the current decade. The COVID-19 pandemic is said to have sharpened the focus towards profitability for many, but Singh also anticipates another "bull run" in both VC funding and start-up creation in the near future.

Sequoia’s unicorn exposure in India and Southeast Asia includes Oyo Rooms, Freshworks, OlaCabs, Pine Labs, Bjyu’s, Zomato, Gojek, and Tokopedia.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• India
• Singapore
• Indonesia
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• Malaysia
• Vietnam
• Sequoia Capital