Funds managed
| Fund name | Asset Class | License |
| Sequoia (fund 1-6) | Early stage and follow-ups | SEBI Cat 1 |
About the AMC
- Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm
- Sequoia Capital India was formed in 2000 and is based in Bengaluru, India with additional offices in Mumbai and New Delhi, India; Singapore, Menlo Park, California, Herzliya, Israel, Hong Kong, and Beijing, Shanghai, China. Sequoia Capital India operates as a subsidiary of Sequoia Capital.
- Sequoia invests in both public and private companies. It specializes in incubation, seed stage, startup stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies.
- Sequoia Capital India helps daring founders build legendary companies – from idea to IPO and beyond.
- Fund V- invested $ 920, Fund VI- invested $695
Key staff
- Mohit Bhatnagar, MD at Sequoia, prior work experience- Sr vice president at Bharti Airtel Ltd.
- Ravishankar GV, MD at Sequoia, prior work experience associate at Mckinsey&Co. , PGDM from IIM A.
- Rajan Anandan, MD at Sequoia, prior work experience Vice president at Google, MD at Microsoft, VP at Dell
Investment Philosophy (for firm)
- At Sequoia, we believe in partnering early, when the company’s DNA is just beginning to take shape.
- Sequoia India’s venture team which will make early-stage investments is going to be headed by Mohit Bhatnagar, while the growth team, which typically bets on more mature companies, is going to steered by GV Ravishankar.
- Having two different teams chasing venture and growth opportunities separately will likely give Sequoia better focus and maybe even strengthen the possibility of having two separate funds in the future.
- Over the next decade expect India based SaaS companies to be a major focus for us at Sequoia Capital India (source- Mohit Bhatnagar, MD – linkedin profile)
Media
Title: Sequoia’s Rajan Anandan urges startups to be authentic, look at sectors where they can create impact, Source: Shradha Shrama , yourstory (youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TaKy_P488Q&t=7s
Discussed evolution of e-commerce eco system, focused on SURGE program by Sequoia which give $1-$2 mil upfront to early stage starups, focussed on solving problem realted to fund raising, founders can benefit from this program and can focus on product development and holistic company development.
Title: Sequoia Surge backs seven Indian startups in the third batch, Source: ET, Date: April 2020
On the Surge app, founders can now seek help to hire talent, brainstorm growth hacks, rate investor interactions, and seek mentorship in a closed setting. The collective community aspect of Surge makes it a lot more powerful. We’ve had instances where Surge founders share with each other feedback on investors, reference checks for senior hires enabling them to avoid bad actors,” said Ravish Naresh, founder of Khatabook, a digital ledger app for entrepreneurs.
Title: Sequoia, Matrix Partners drive $11 m funding round in Park+, Source: ET, Date: January 2020
Park+, which is looking to digitise parking across India, has raised $11 million in a financing round co-led by venture capital funds Sequoia India and Matrix Partners India.
Park+ is a mobile app-based platform that offers an automated parking system as well as a cloud-based security solution for daily commuters, corporates, and commercial establishments.
Title: Sequoia restructures India team, splits it into growth and venture, source: ET Prime, Date: October 2018
The venture team which will make early-stage investments is going to be headed by Mohit Bhatnagar, while the growth team, which typically bets on more mature companies, is going to be steered by GV Ravishankar. Both Bhatnagar and Ravishankar are managing directors and partners at the fund. There are no separate capital allocations made for the teams, though, people familiar with the matter said. But this sort of a structure wasn’t followed in India, till last year, when Sequoia first introduced the idea of having teams working independently. Unlike what had been widely discussed, the two teams at Sequoia have not been divided sector wise (tech and non-tech) but on the basis of the stage of investment that they’d focus on.
Analyst questions
- What does Sequoia bring to the table, how is it different from other venture capital in India?
- How do you make a judgment call of whether to invest in a startup? What is the framework that you follow for different stages of funding?
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