Sequoia

Spark FAQs

The Spark Fellowship aims to inspire more women to become entrepreneurs by increasing their access to knowledge and capital.

Common Questions

Spark is a movement to inspire more women to become entrepreneurs. It’s a four-month long fellowship program that includes a USD 100K equity-free grant, access to mentorship, as well as learning sessions and events. Spark is open for applications to all female founders who want access to domain knowledge and a community of founders they can tap on for learning and support.

In addition to a USD 100K grant, you will get access to founder talks, deep-dive studio sessions, as well as mentorship from other founders who are part of the Peak XV network, and specialists across our human capital, marketing, product, legal, and finance teams. Each Spark founder will also be mapped to an investment advisor who will work directly with them throughout the duration of the program. 

Learn more about the fellowship here.

Spark is a four-month long fellowship program that includes regular check-ins with your investment advisor, and mentorship from a curated set of industry experts, startup founders, and Peak XV specialists across hiring, marketing, product, legal and finance.

Spark 03 kicks off in February 2024.

Applications close on 1 December.

Follow us on social media for regular updates:

Twitter: @peakxvpartners

Instagram: @peakxvpartners

LinkedIn: Peak XV Partners

Yes – just like our other program, Surge, the Spark fellowship is open-architecture. We aim to collaborate with partners across the greater startup ecosystem, and welcome the participation of seed funds, angel investors, and other VC firms.

As part of the Spark fellowship grant, Peak XV will not take any stake or ownership in your company, but we do expect you to commit the time and effort to attend the sessions to make the best of the program.

While each cohort lasts for four months, the Spark community is for life. You can continue to stay connected to your Spark network, attend events and benefit from peer and community learnings after the fellowship ends.

While Spark founders can seek funding from Peak XV or Surge after the fellowship ends, selection to the Spark program does not guarantee follow-on funding from either.

Applications for Spark 03 are now closed. You can follow us on our social media accounts for regular updates on when Spark 04 will open for applications.

We are looking for driven female founders leading recently launched startups on a mission to create large-scale impact by solving problems across AI, deeptech, SaaS, FinTech, climate tech, consumer tech, Web3, HealthTech, and more across India, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

The deadline for applications for our next Spark cohort is 1 December 2023. Spark 03 will begin in February 2024.

The Spark program is specifically designed for early-stage startups and is focused on empowering female founders by providing them with access to capital, knowledge, mentorship, and networks to supercharge the first steps of their company-building journey.

If you are yet to launch your startup, we would love to see a business plan on your product or service, as well as details on your Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy.

We only accept applications from full-time founders.

We only accept applications from full-time founders. You are welcome to apply if you are currently a student but can commit to running your startup full-time by the time the next Spark cohort is in session.

Your application will be reviewed by a group of Peak XV’s investment advisors. If you are shortlisted, we will set up a virtual meeting with you and your co-founders (if any). After this meeting, we will select the final list of startups for the Spark cohort. You can expect to hear from us within three weeks of your application, regardless of the status.

Not right away, but if you are selected for the Spark fellowship, you will need to get your company registered in order to receive the grant.

You can apply for the Spark Fellowship if you are building for India, Southeast Asia, or Australia. If you are selected for Spark 03, you are required to join us for a series of in-person events when the cohort kicks off in February 2024. We will be hosting a series of meet-ups and sessions for Spark 03 to meet and connect with other founders in their cohort, as well as the broader startup community. Being a part of these in-person events plays a valuable part in being part of the Spark community.

Yes, you definitely can apply to Spark, but you will need to be an equal or majority shareholder in the business. Please note that if selected, the program will only be open to you and not your male co-founder(s).

A single application is sufficient for the both of you since the form has provision to share details of your co-founder. Please go through the fields carefully and share all the relevant details of your co-founder.

You don’t need to have a co-founder to apply to Spark. We hope that you will meet like-minded people through the Spark community so that you can learn and grow with them.

You can expect to hear from us within six to eight weeks of your application, regardless of the status.

Spark does not charge any program fees. Given this is a grant, we don’t take any ownership or stake in your company either.