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 Peak XV’s Fellowship program that identifies and shapes future leaders while building a close community of women founders.

The Spark Fellowship is open to all female founders who are building in tech and are in the early stages of their startup journey. Recipients receive a USD 100K equity-free grant, along with access to domain knowledge, mentorship, exclusive events and a community of like-minded founders.

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.

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.

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

Apply here.

We are looking for driven female founders leading recently launched tech 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.

We accept applications on a rolling basis throughout the year.

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 six to eight 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.

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 fellowship 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 fees. Given this is a grant, we don’t take any ownership or stake in your company either.