CEBU, Philippines – Silicon Valley-based Sequoia Capital, an early investor in some of India’s largest startups, including Byju’s, Zomato, and Oyo, is on the market for a second seed asset that is aimed at building a country.
The venture capital firm’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that it is building Sequoia Capital India Seed Fund II less than two years after it entered the Seed I Fund.
He did not disclose how large the fund will be. The first seed fund, which focuses on technology, healthcare, and consumer segments, appears to have raised $ 200 million.
The filing, signed by director Satyadeo Bissessur, does not reveal the fund’s timeline.
India’s seed fund is separate from Sequoia Capital’s Surge incentive program, which also focuses on early start-up stages. Surge aims to hire 10 to 12 start-ups in India and Southeast Asia across sectors such as consumer internet, technology, enterprise software, healthcare and fintech, and $ 1.5 million invest in each of them.
It was launched in January 2019, while Seed Fund I was launched five months later.
In June 2020, the Silicon Valley company launched India Venture VII and India Growth Fund II. Although the targets for the fund have not been announced, it was reported earlier that Sequoia Capital was launching the largest target fund in India with a corpus of around $ 1.25 billion.
India Venture VII, according to a media report, is 80% larger than its previous fund, which closed at $ 695 million in August 2018. India Growth Fund II, meanwhile, raised $ 725 million in 2008.
Last year, Sequoia Capital launched China Venture Fund VIII, China Growth Fund VI and China Seed Fund II. They had raised $ 2.35 billion or so for the ancestors of these vehicles – China V Growth Fund V ($ 1.8 billion), China Venture Fund VII ($ 550 million), and China Seed Fund ($ 150 million).
A subsidiary of Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital India was established in 2000 and is headquartered in Bengaluru, with offices in Singapore, California, Israel, Hong Kong, Beijing and China.
His portfolio includes Byju’s, Awfis, Grofers and Bira in India, and Gojek, Carousell, Zilingo, Competition AON and Akulaku in Southeast Asia.
Founded in 1972, California-based investment firm Menlo Park is the world’s most successful business in investing in and breeding unicorns.
According to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020, released in August, Sequoia Capital had caught 109 unicorns, which are private companies worth $ 1 billion and more. That’s an 18.5% increase from 2019, when Sequoia Capital also topped the list.
In a separate filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sequoia Capital also launched Sequoia Capital US / E Seed Fund IV. The company, however, did not disclose details of the asset, such as size and timing.
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