Sequoia Capital is looking to raise between $500 million and $600 million for its new India fund, according to Term Sheet blog at Fortune. The report did not add any additional information on the India fund.
This would be the first fundraise after the transition in its India team in 2011. Sequoia Capital India currently manages $1.4 billion across two growth capital funds and one venture capital fund.
Interestingly, it is expected that this capital pool will be allocated across both venture capital and growth capital strategies going ahead, rather than raising separate fund for both strategies.
An email sent to Sequoia Capital India spokesperson did not elicit a response at the time of filing this article.
In early 2011, Sequoia Capital's four founding MDs—Sumir Chadha, KP Balaraj, Sandeep Singhal and SK Jain—left the private capital investment firm to build a public market investment focused WestBridge Capital. Abhay Pandey, Shailendra Singh, Mohit Bhatnagar, VT Bharadwaj and GV Ravishankar were the new team managing the India business of Seqouia Capital.
Sequoia Capital India raised $300 million venture capital funds back in 2007. It raised its first growth fund with a corpus of $400 million in 2006 and second fund at $725 million in 2008, weeks before the Lehman bankruptcy.
Sequoia Capital's new India fund is part of the move to raise $2 billion for new funds globally, according to the report. It is also planning to raise growth fund for US market targeting $1 billion and first growth fund for China targeting $500-600 million.
Sequoia Capital is one of the most blue-chip venture capital investors from Silicon Valley, having backed companies like Google and Apple.
The firms India unit also has also seen consistent exits in companies like Pangea3, Manappuram Finance and Paras Pharma in 2012; Tutorvista and Vasan Healthcare (partial exit) in 2012 and Prizm Payments in 2013.
2013 also saw Just Dial, its largest and most aggressive investment in India, go for successful IPO and its share price rising 3x since the issue. Seqoia's total investment of Rs 360-370 crore (across funds) is currently worth over Rs 1,645 crore, without taking into account shares worth Rs 170 crore sold already.
The fundraise would be one of the largest in recent times. Recent large PE fundraises include Manish Kejriwal-led Kedaara Capital, which raised a $540 million maiden offshore fund and Tata Opportunities Fund, which mopped up $600 million.
Some venture capital firms like Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Inventus Capital and Kalaari Capital have also closed new funds over the last two years.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
