Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley’s top-tier VC fund closed fresh $920 million fund. Funds will largely invests in Indian startups. The fresh funds takes Sequoia’s total investment assets to more than $3 billion in India.
This is the biggest raise by any VC fund for India-specific investments, cementing Sequoia’s leadership position in the domestic early-to-growth stage investing space.
TOI had reported on September 8 last year about Sequoia Capital, a backer of companies like Just Dial, Freecharge, Zomato, Oyo Rooms, among others, being on the road to raise its fifth India fund. At the time, Sequoia was looking to shore up $800 million.
Sequoia, which had backed tech giants like Google and Apple in their very early stages, will see the new fund invest in Indian and south-east Asian companies.
Last year, Sequoia’s peers, including Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, Kalaari Capital and Lightspeed India, racked up new capital amid an unparalleled deal-making environment.
As deals closed in weeks and valuations shot up rapidly, leading to competitiveness among VCs, the well-capitalized investors went on a tear and took dozens of bets on companies led by the likes of Sequoia. Some of the fund’s investments last year included Oyo Rooms, Grofers, Roadrunnr and Craftsvilla, among others.
Since Sequoia started operations here in 2006, the fund has invested in 100-plus companies across sectors such as technology, healthcare, consumer and financial services. Last year saw Sequoia-backed Freecharge, a mobile recharge company, being acquired by e-commerce major Snapdeal, post which the VC fund got a 3% shareholding in the Delhi-based e-commerce firm.