In India, last year, it invested more than $4 billion in over 70 startups, including the likes of WakeFit and Nykaa-rival Purplle, among others.

Sequoia Capital has raised $2.85 billion to invest in startups in India and Southeast Asia. Of this, the venture capital firm will deploy about $2 billion in Indian startups while the remaining $850 million will be used to fund startups in the Southeast Asia region. This is the biggest dedicated India fund raised by an investor at a time when startup funding has slowed down on global cues, and some of Sequoia’s portfolio firms in the region have been hit with corporate governance issues.

How will Sequoia utilise these funds?

The firm said it intends to “double down” on the region, where it runs programmes like Surge, through which it backs very early-stage firms, and Spark, using which it offers fellowships to female founders, other than venture and growth investments. The firm is planning to deploy close to $300 million in early stage startups.

Which Indian startups has Sequoia invested in?

The venture capital fund has been an early backer of some of the biggest tech companies in the world including Apple, Google and WhatsApp. In India, last year, it invested more than $4 billion in over 70 startups, including the likes of WakeFit and Nykaa-rival Purplle, among others. It is also an investor in both the top edtech firms in the country in Byju’s and Unacademy. The investment firm was also an early investor in Zomato which hit the bourses last year, and another of its portfolio companies, MobiKwik has filed its draft prospectus with market regulator Sebi for a Rs 1,900 crore initial public offering.

How have Sequoia’s portfolio companies fared?

While Sequoia India and Southeast Asia has made an estimated return of around $4 billion in realised and unrealised gains by virtue of some of its portfolio companies going public, at least three startups it invested in — BharatPe, Trell and Singapore-based Zilingo — have been hit with corporate governance issues, including potential instances of fraud.

BharatPe’s co-founder Ashneer Grover has left the company after an investigation within the company allegedly found his wife Madhuri Jain and his relatives siphoned money from the firm. Live commerce firm Trell’s founders too have been accused of misappropriating the startup’s funds and misrepresenting its growth metrics. Singapore-based Zilingo has fired its chief executive Ankiti Bose over alleged accounting issues. In response to these instances, Sequoia Capital India has said that it will take “proactive steps” to drive corporate governance at startups it invests in and ask for more disclosures and rigorously adopt internal audits and controls.