Sequoia Capital India raises $400 million Growth Capital Fund
First two investments in Café Coffee Day and Flextronics buyout
Tweet-- Mumbai, September 15, 2006: Sequoia Capital India, India's leading venture capital investment firm, today announced that it recently closed a $400 million fund to invest in later stage and growth capital opportunities across sectors in India. The new fund will broaden the firm's historical focus on early to mid stage companies to include investments in expansion and growth stage businesses. The firm currently manages around $750 mm of venture capital funds for India.
Sequoia Capital India has been one the most active investment firms in India and has invested in over 25 companies over the past few years, including market leaders such as Applabs, Bharti Telesoft, Café Coffee Day, ICICI OneSource, Indiatimes, Indecomm and marketRx. All Sequoia Capital India funds are managed by the four current Managing Directors of the firm - Sumir Chadha, KP Balaraj, SK Jain, and Sandeep Singhal.
Speaking on the launch of the fund, Sumir Chadha, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India said, "We are pleased to announce the closing of Sequoia Capital India Growth Fund I, which we capped at $400 mm, our third fund for India. This fund will allow us to offer the powerful Sequoia Capital platform of knowledge, global relationships and resources to founders and management from the early days of company formation and product development to the business expansion and revenue ramping stage."
"We will continue to be one of the most aggressive investors in high growth companies in India across growth capital and venture, and are excited about the number of high quality companies and management teams we are engaged with for a potential partnership with our firm," said KP Balaraj, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India.
Sequoia Capital India's investment in Café Coffee Day was the first investment of its new growth fund. Coffee Day is a dominant player in the Indian coffee and food services industry with around 1,500 retail outlets across India. The second investment in the new fund was an investment in the recent KKR led buyout of Flextronics Software Systems, India's largest buyout transaction.
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About Sequoia Capital
Since 1972, Sequoia Capital has provided startup venture capital for very smart people who want to turn ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", since 1972, Sequoia Capital has provided startup venture capital for very smart people who want to turn ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators such as Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Gaurav Garg of Redback Networks, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor, Lou Tomasetta of Vitesse Semiconductor, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer and Larry Ellison of Oracle. The companies organized by Sequoia Capital now account for about 10% of the value of NASDAQ. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit http://www.sequoiacap.com.