| The rush to raise India-specific private equity funds continues unabated. After Barings India Private Equity Partners’ announcement to raise around $450-500 million for their next fund, it is understood that Sequoia Capital India is also mulling to raise its second growth fund with a corpus of at least around $500 million. The new fund is expected to be in place in the next year. |
| Sequoia India is currently investing from its first $400-million late-stage fund, of which nearly 60 per cent has been committed. Industry sources indicate that Sequoia is readying the stables for its second fund, which will not be less than $400-million. Sequoia declined to comment on this development. |
| Sequoia India currently manages $1-billion funds focused on India. Some of its investments include Applabs, Bharti Telesoft, Café Coffee Day, Firstsource, GlobalLogic, Travelguru, Shaadi and Guruji. Globally, Sequoia Capital has been an early investor in such companies as Google, Yahoo, Apple, Oracle, Cisco and YouTube. |
| The new fund will further consolidate Sequoia’s position in India. It recently closed a venture capital fund of around $300 million, the largest in the country. |
| According to industry watchers, Sequoia is perhaps the only fund manager, which has dedicated two different funds focusing on venture capital and growth & late stages. |
| Sequoia expects a seven-fold return ( around $700 million) on its first venture capital fund of $140 million. It is also learnt that the firm is likely to exit from two software companies, in which it invested from its first VC fund. |
| The momentum to raise India-specific funds is being backed by global institutional investors such as Calpers, fund of funds such as Thomas Wiesel, family endowments such as the Hewlett Foundation, universities including Stanford, Harvard and Yale. |
| Industry watchers indicate that if a fund has a good track record of investing and returning adequately, they will not have a problem in raising funds, even in the current scenario of debt crunch. |
Source: Business Standard