Sequoia India closes Fund VI, announces five promotions

We are happy to announce that Sequoia India has recently closed its sixth fund, at $695 million, which will be used to double down on investments in both early and growth stage companies in the technology, consumer and healthcare sectors across India and Southeast Asia (SEA). We are privileged and grateful to have our Limited Partners’ steadfast support over the last 12 years.

Moments like these give us an opportunity to pause, reflect, refresh and recommit to the cause. For Sequoia, the goal is clear: to be the preferred partner for daring founders who want to build legendary companies. Sequoia India has invested consistently and with conviction, every single year – in good and bad markets. Our newest fund underscores Sequoia’s commitment to India and SEA, where we have made over 200 investments so far.

Our team has had the pleasure of working with some of the most resolute, determined and creative founders across the region. The list is long – Amit Kumat of Prataap Snacks, Ankur Jain of Bira, Byju Raveendran of Byju’s, Chatri Sityodtong of One Championship, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Dhiraj Rajaram of Mu Sigma, Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks, Jaspreet Singh of Druva, Kunal Shah of Freecharge, D. Lakshmipathy of Five Star Finance, Lokvir Kapoor of Pine Labs, Nadiem Makarim of Go-Jek, Rajul Garg of GlobalLogic, Ritesh Agarwal of OYO Rooms, Shashank ND of Practo, VSS Mani of JustDial, William Tanuwijaya of Tokopedia and more*.

At Sequoia, we believe in partnering early, when the company’s DNA is just beginning to take shape. Sequoia India has been privileged to invest at the very early stages in many startups, including Citrus, Druva, Faaso’s, FreeCharge, Grofers, Healthkart, India Shelter Finance, Mobikwik, Pine Labs, Practo, Prizm Payments, Scio Health and Zilingo. This is another area where we intend to double down as we strive to help companies journey from idea to IPO and beyond.

In 2012, Sequoia India established a presence in Southeast Asia. That early-mover advantage served up some incredible opportunities, including investments in Go-Jek, Tokopedia and Traveloka – which now rank among Indonesia’s largest unicorns – as well as regional market leaders like One Championship, Appier and Carousell. SE Asia accounts for 20-30% of Sequoia India’s investments, by value, and we expect that to continue near term.

Our funds have also seen a steady drumbeat of exits over the last few years. Several portfolio companies have had M&A events including GlobalLogic, Star Health, Scio Health Analytics, Prizm Payments, Freecharge, Citrus and others. Multiple portfolio companies have also gone public, including Prataap Snacks, JustDial, Ujjivan, Equitas and QuickHeal. And we see the pace of these key milestones picking up as more companies reach scale.

Over the years, Sequoia Capital India has added some very talented young investment advisors to the team and they are now ready to step up. Hence, we are thrilled to announce the promotions of several key team members. Abheek Anand, who joined us from Facebook and has led our investments in Appier, Cuemath, Grofers and MoneyTap, has been promoted to Managing Director. Abheek will focus on investments in SE Asia. We have also promoted four VPs to Principal roles. Ishaan Mittal and Sakshi Chopra will become Principals in the growth team. Ashish Agarwal and Harshjit Sethi will become Principals in the venture team. We are thrilled to see this dynamic cohort, who have cumulatively spent 25+ years at Sequoia India, take on expanded responsibility.

Alongside these celebrations, we have a departure. Abhay Pandey has decided to move on. Abhay had wanted to create a dedicated consumer fund. Sequoia is committed to consumer investments; dedicated sector funds, however, are not part of Sequoia’s structure. We understand Abhay’s decision to chart his own course and are grateful for his contributions.

As we look to the future, the menu of investment opportunities is unprecedented – from mobile internet to online brands, enterprise SaaS to AI, crypto to deep tech in healthcare, new age consumer brands and beyond. India and SEA, meanwhile, are at an inflection point, and we are witnessing incredible quality of new investment opportunities. We are excited to think about the potential of our companies over the next many years – this combined region is projected to have GDP of over $14T in 2030** and will likely have over 1.5B mobile internet users by then. Many of the up and coming startups of today are going to be the category creators and leaders of tomorrow.

We hope that Sequoia India’s new fund is a step forward in helping to unleash the potential of the region.

• THIS IS NOT AN OFFER. INTERESTS IN THE SEQUOIA INDIA FUNDS ARE OFFERED ONLY BY MEANS OF A PRIVATE PLACEMENT MEMORANDUM. Companies mentioned in this blog post are not a representative sample of any Sequoia India fund’s financial status, prospects or attributes.

*The Hindu: “India to be at $10T by 2030.”/ PWC: “The Future of ASEAN: Time to Act” / Business World: “1.2 billion Indians will have a smartphone by 2030” / PWC: “The Future of ASEAN: Telecommunications“