Building for the Long Term

By Team Sequoia India & Southeast Asia

Today, we’re pleased to announce that Sequoia India and Sequoia Southeast Asia have collectively raised $2.85 billion across a set of funds, including India venture and growth funds and an $850 million Southeast Asian fund – our first dedicated fund for the SEA region.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Sequoia as a global firm, 16 years in India, and 10 in Southeast Asia. We’ve had the good fortune to partner with some of the most innovative, mission-driven founders in the region, across multiple sectors, stages and many market cycles. 

This fundraise, which comes at a time when markets are starting to cool after a very long bull run, signals our deep commitment to the region and the faith our Limited Partners have in the long-term growth story of India and Southeast Asia. The new funds will bolster our mission to help daring founders to build legendary companies from idea to IPO and beyond. We are grateful to our LPs for their continued support of this mission, and to our founders for their dedication to driving innovation and change.

The region’s startup ecosystem has grown rapidly in the last decade, thanks to the acceleration of digital adoption and rising consumer incomes. Last year, India emerged as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, after the USA and China. Southeast Asia, meanwhile, is on track to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2030. Our initiatives in the region continue to reflect our desire to actively contribute to building and supporting the ecosystem in ways that go beyond capital. Surge, a 16 week program of early stage startups that we launched in 2019, has grown to a community of 246 founders from 112 startups across more than 15 sectors.  Last year we launched Sequoia Spark, our fellowship for female founders, and Sequoia Build, our program for growth stage startups looking to scale sustainably. 

The startup and venture capital ecosystem in India and Southeast Asia has made great strides in the last decade and will continue to mature. Valuations and velocity will move with markets. What endures is value creation in terms of revenue growth, profitability and free cash flow rooted in real innovation, excellence in execution and a maniacal focus on customers. At Sequoia India and Southeast Asia, we intend to double down on our efforts to help founders build healthy companies that will endure.

We are at an exciting juncture in India and Southeast Asia, with ever-deepening markets, higher consumption power, supportive regulations and high talent density. We have never seen such diversity and dynamism in the founders we partner with; we are awed by their vision and ambition. There’s a strong sense in the emerging economies and fast-changing societies across India and Southeast Asia that ‘now is our time’. Many large companies with regional or global footprints will emerge from this region in the decade to come. 

We remain committed to our mission to help founders build enduring companies. If you’re a founder who wants to dig in, stay focused and play the long game, reach out to us.