BackSequoia’s Surge invests $55 mn in fifth cohort along with co-investors
Sequoia Capital India’s startup accelerator programme, Surge announced its fifth and largest cohort of 23 early-stage startups and has invested a total of $55 million along with co-investors in this current batch
PremiumBengaluru: Sequoia Capital India’s startup accelerator programme, Surge announced its fifth and largest cohort of 23 early-stage startups and has invested a total of $55 million along with co-investors in this current batch.
Out of the 23 companies, a majority of 13 companies are working in domains of fintech, payments, communications, logistics and Software as a Service (SaaS).
Further, these companies are building products and services to help other companies, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) work smarter, better and seamlessly across borders, Sequoia Capital India said.
The fifth batch of Surge includes 10 women founders, and is the largest cohort for the startup accelerator, till date.
With this, Sequoia India has now garnered a community of 203 founders, across 91 startups in 15 sectors, since inception in March 2019. The programme began with an initial corpus of $200 million
“We are incredibly proud of all 23 companies who have joined Surge 05 and the founders who have forged their businesses in sectors that have seen tremendous tailwinds. These leaders have displayed grit, exceptional talent, and relentless purpose in shaping the world. At this inflection point of global regrowth, we are excited to be part of the journey of our founders and their companies," said Rajan Anandan, managing director, Surge and Sequoia Capital India.
Nearly 50% of companies from the first three cohorts have raised their Series A rounds, the blue-chip venture capital firm said.
Overall, Surge startups from the first four cohorts have raised a combined total of $172 million in their Surge rounds.
Apart from larger themes of fintech and SaaS, close to five companies selected as a part of Surge’s fifth batch operate in the lifestyle segment, building solutions around advanced farming, gaming and looking at consumer wellness.
Another four companies are building solutions for the education space and providing digital mentoring, skills training and borderless internships, while equipping developers with big data and data science capabilities.
Surge invests around $1 million to $2 million of seed capital in these companies while providing them tools to scale.
Earlier in March,this year, Sequoia India, announced the close of its second seed fund at $195 million, to back the next set of early-stage startups, across Indian and n markets, under Surge.
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