US-based VC has string of successes behind it.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital announced that it has raised over a half-billion dollars to be used for investments in India, bringing its total financial investment in India to around $2 billion.
The Menlo Park-based venture firm raised $530 million, and will use it to further invest into technology, consumer, and healthcare sector companies in the subcontinent. Speaking to the Times of India, Sequoia Capital’s India head, Abhay Pandey, said that the size of each investment will range from anywhere between $100,000, to as high as $50 million.
Sequoia Capital is already making good on that promise. Earlier this week, its India branch announced a $15 million (Rs. 90 crore) investment into New Delhi-based Octro, a start-up that specializes in mobile games. With India’s mobile sector booming over the last few years, the time is ripe for Sequoia Capital to invest in it. In fact, several international IT companies have been scooping up Indian tech start-ups in the last year.
Sequoia Capital is known for picking winners, and has been an investor in some of the biggest tech start-ups of the past decade. Names that Sequoia Capital has attached itself to include Instagram, PayPal, Meebo, and WhatsApp, which recently was acquired by Facebook for a staggering $19 billion.
The company has not yet revealed which firms in India it intends to invest in, nor has it said how long its rollout of new investments will take. It has said, however, that it is not limiting itself to just start-ups, and that companies at all stages of development will be considered.