Sequoia Capital raises $530 mn for new India-focused fund

Bangalore: Sequoia Capital, perhaps the only pure global venture capital firm to have a presence (and investments) in India, announced that it has raised a fourth round of $530 million for its India-focused fund to expand its investments in India and South-East Asia.

“The two trends that we have been seeing is that mobile Internet is growing, and Indian start-ups are increasingly becoming global. We want to tap both these opportunities,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director Sequoia Capital.

The scope of the Sequoia Capital India Fund has been increased to include direct investments in South East Asia, along with India.

“In the last few years, we focused on helping companies expand in South East Asia, but in this phase, we will do direct investments in companies there too,” said Singh.

The fund will primarily invest in the technology, consumer and healthcare sectors, with special focus on mobile, online payments, big data, SaaS (software-as-a-service), cloud computing, enterprise software and medical and lifestyle related healthcare start-ups, said Singh.

The fund has been investing in India for eight years, and has made seed, venture and growth investments ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to over $50 million. Its portfolio in India, which has around 75 companies, includes Capillary Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which builds customer engagement software; Druva Software Pvt. ltd, which builds cloud back-up solutions; cellphone manufacturer Micromax Technologies Pvt. Ltd; and business listings service providers Just Dial Pvt. Ltd and Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd.

The company is looking to invest in many more seed rounds in India in the years to come, said Singh.

To make this possible, Sequoia Capital India Advisors has assembled an internal team of 10 executives to help founders of portfolio companies with support in the legal, finance, marketing, human resources, information technology, business development and engineering divisions.

“This hands-on execution help is a key differentiator in Sequoia Capital’s strategy in India [as opposed to other Indian VCs],” said Singh.

With the recent fund-raise, the total capital committed to Sequoia Capital’s India funds is around $2 billion.