Sequoia India & Southeast Asia is now as Peak XV Partners, marking a significant shift in the firm's identity and strategic focus as it splits from the parent firm.

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The VC giant that manages over $85 billion globally will split into Sequoia Capital representing the US and Europe, HongShan in China, and Peak XV Partners in India and Southeast Asia. It has been an early investor in tech companies like Airbnb, WhatsApp, Zoom, and ByteDance among others. The firm plans to complete the separation by March 2024.

Peak XV Partners will now function as a fully independent venture capital firm, maintaining its commitment to managing a substantial $9.2 billion across 13 funds.

Additionally, the firm said it will leverage an impressive $2.5 billion of uninvested capital to pursue new investment opportunities. Sequoia Capital India and South East Asia had raised $2.5 billion in 2022, the largest ever fund for the region. It plans to funnel $2 bn into India with the rest to be invested in the region.

Shailendra Singh, the managing director for India and South East Asia called the move a "new beginning" for Peak XV Partners, adding that the “firm will continue to be led by the present leadership team. It will continue to invest from a recently raised set of funds.”

Singh also emphasised that the restructured framework will present big global opportunities for the firm, the “new structure will open up an unbounded global opportunity and create more value for founders and LPs."

He added that there would be "no change in the way we manage our portfolio relationships. Companies are emerging from every region with global ambitions and strategies for each region and business units have diverged. The scale and market leadership was causing brand confusion and portfolio conflict."

The firm entered India in the early 2000s and is one of the most active investors in Indian startups. The VC has backed over 35 unicorns with active investments in over 400 startups across South East Asia. Its early-stage dedicated vertical Surge has investments in 100+ startups. The sector-agnostic firm has backed companies across fintech, SaaS, edtech, to consumer/D2C, healthtech, and deeptech, AI/ML.

Sequoia India’s portfolio includes Zomato, BYJUS, OYO, Freshworks, Druva, Pine Labs, Unacademy, Razorpay, Cars24, Dailyhunt, Meesho, CRED, Groww, Moglix, Blackbuck, BharatPe, Eruditus, Grofers, Zetwerk, MPL, Apna, CoinSwitch, Rebel Foods, CarDekho, Darwinbox, OneCard, Polygon among others.

Interestingly, this split and rebranding come at a time when there have been multiple corporate governance issues at some of its investee companies like BYJUS, BharatPe, Zilingo, GoMechanic, and Trell.

Curious to know the relevance of the name, this writer found that before it was christened Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain was called Peak 15! It seems the theme continues, from the world’s tallest tree to the world’s tallest mountain.

First Published:Jun 6, 2023 4:49 PM IST