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Sequoia India and Southeast Asia broadens check range for early-stage Surge prog...

 2 years ago
source link: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sequoia-india-southeast-asia-broadens-003220375.html
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Sequoia India and Southeast Asia broadens check range for early-stage Surge program

Manish Singh
Thu, June 23, 2022, 9:32 AM·4 min read

Sequoia India and Southeast Asia is broadening the range of its check size for the Surge program as the storied venture firm attempts to make its seed investments more “relevant for a larger set of founders,” it said Thursday.

The venture firm’s check size for the three-year-old Surge program, which previously made $1 million to $2 million investments in early-stage startups in the region, will now go up to $3 million, it said. There's also no floor size to the investment range, which can start from $300,000 or less, the firm said.

The move comes as the firm, the most powerful and influential venture investor, realizes that some of the early-stage startups it backs through the Surge program need more capital especially during the current market conditions, while some firms are at such a nascent stages – where they don’t have products, for instance – who could do with smaller checks, said Rajan Anandan, a managing director at Sequoia India and Southeast Asia, in an interview with TechCrunch.

Anandan, who previously served as the head of Google India and Southeast Asia and was one of the most prolific angel investors before joining Sequoia, dismissed the idea that the decision is a response to the current market conditions, saying Sequoia had been formulating the change for several months, but said “in [the current] context, it would be even more helpful.”

As the size of its investment changes, the firm said it is not looking to take more ownership in the young startups. The equity range against its investments will continue between 10 to 20% as the ceiling limit, whereas there will be more flexibility to the floor range, he said.

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The Surge team. Image Credits: Sequoia India and Southeast Asia

Sequoia began the Surge program, which is similar to Y Combinator's model, in 2019. The firm selects 15 to 20 startups every six months or so after evaluating hundreds of applications and in-person meetings, and groups them in cohorts. The cohort spends 16 weeks learning the fundamentals of finding their voice, best practices and establishing relationships with peers.


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