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It's not just Google and YouTube for Sequoia Capital. They also want to help the poor - and in the process, make some money too. The Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund has invested $11.5 million in India's leading microfinance institution SKS Microfinance. SKS Microfinance CEO Vikram Akula told CNBC that it's the "the first pure for-profit private equity play" ever seen in the microlending business.

With Sequoia funding, SKS would become the largest for-profit microfinance institution in the world. As for Sequoia, it's not a funding for a social cause alone. It hopes to make a good return out of this investment, and in the process if it helps poor people, let it be. SKS's Akula says microlending is not as risky as one perceives it to be. SKS has a 99 per cent on-time repayment rate from its 600,000 borrowers. It provides an ROE of 23 per cent.

By the way, Sequoia's investment has come with conditions. It has an exit clause that within the next 3-5 years, SKS will either have an IPO or be acquired. Sequoia will be the largest investor in SKS, the others being Unitus Equity, SIDBI and individual investors like Vinod Khosla.