This is the first time that Sequoia has announced a dedicated corpus for Southeast Asia. Until now, it has invested in the region's startups from its India fund. The pool of capital will be use to partner with the next generation of founders on a mission to build enduring companies from the region.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Sequoia as a global firm, 16th  year in India and 10th year in Southeast Asia. It all started in 1972 when Don Valentine founded Sequoia in California which mainly focuses on the Technology Industry, at a time when Venture Capital Industry was just beginning to develop. A veteran of the nascent semiconductor industry, Don had helped power the growth of personal computing and networking. Don chose “Sequoia,” a tree that lives thousands of years. With Sequoia’s first $3 million fund, he backed both Apple and video game pioneer Atari. Notable other successful Investments by the company include Cisco, Google, LinkedIn, Paypal, Airbnb, Stripe, Zoom, Instagram, Reddit and Tumblr. Sequoia manages Investment funds, outside US including funds specific to India, China, Israel and now Southeast Asia.

Company in its blog also mentioned to mark its 50th anniversary, “We are excited for what the next decade and beyond will bring, and we look forward to partnering with more of the daring founders of today to thrive in the largest markets of tomorrow.”

The new funds will bolster Sequoia mission to help daring founders to build legendary companies from idea to IPO and beyond. 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. Sequoia initiatives in the region continue to reflect on their desire to actively contribute to building and supporting the ecosystem in ways that go beyond capital.

Sequoia established its roots in India in 2006 after its acquisition of homegrown private equity firm Westbridge. In 2011 founders of Westbridge quit Sequoia and relaunch the brand. In India out of 101 Unicorn, Sequoia has backed about 25 Unicorn; prominent among them include EdTech startups Byju’s, Unacademy and Eraditus; FinTech Cred, BharatPe, Pine Labs; InsurTech Digit; e-commerce Meeso; SaaS  Freshworks and web3 startups Polygon and Coinswitch Kuber.

Sequoia amazing journey of these 10 years in Southeast Asia started from a small room in a quiet building in Singapore to help Sequoia portfolio companies expand in Southeast Asia. A small team expanded its reach in the markets such as India and China where they met bold young founders who brimming with ideas and ambition, consumers who were raring to use digital products, and businesses that were starting to rapidly adopt software. Today Sequoia Southeast Asia office covers over 40 people across 12 nationalities, a large portfolio of seed, venture and growth investments.

Over these years, Sequoia portfolio companies in Southeast Asia covers the depth of the market opportunity. From Gojek, Tokopedia, One Championship and Traveloka’s rapid emergence, to leading the consumer internet revolution in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, to Kopi Kenangan’s ascent as a consumer brand in Indonesia. And with the global success of Biofourmis, Insider and Appier as AI pioneers, see these “SEA to global” technology companies emerge. In the last couple of years, Sequoia has witnessed the emergence of a thriving web3 ecosystem and also seeing new waves of innovation in markets like Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. Sequoia specializes in seed stage, early stage and growth stage Investment in private technology companies.

“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.” company added.

INDIA'S UNICORN CLUB | COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF UNICORNS ENTERED IN 2022

The Indian startup ECO crossed a major milestone in the month of May with the addition of Open, Neobank as India’s 100th startup to join the India’s Unicorn Club.

Globally Indian talent is always a sought out across the Fortune 500 companies and in the recent year the same talent captures the imagination of the world when it comes to entrepreneurs' spirit & CXO level position.

India’s start up is still in the nascent stage, but the talent pool which is driving this is amazing to beat any competition and made a new bench mark when it comes to creating the most innovative solutions for the Global Economy.

The success of the unicorn club narrates one part of their story about the funding and valuation; these unicorns have raised above $ 90 billion in funding and having a combined valuation of over $ 330 billion, even after big correction in some of the listed entities. Today, 1 out every 10 unicorns globally have been born in India, it only reflects the vibrant startup ecosystem present in India.

Startup companies are contributing immensely to the overall growth of the Indian Economy. These startups are not only developing innovative solutions and technologies but also are generating large-scale employment. Bengaluru retained as India's unicorn capital with the largest number of unicorns headquarters followed by Delhi (NCR) and Mumbai.

Indian Startup Ecosystem has seen exponential growth in past few years (2015-2021)

• 9X increase in the number of investors.
• 7X increase in the total funding of startups.
• 7X increase in the number of incubators

Indian Market provides the best options for these startups to explore the public listing to realise their full potential. In the recent past some of the big unicorn names that offered an IPO includes Paytm, Zamato, Nykaa, PolicyBazaar, Delhivery and Freshworks.