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Global Reach
can’t accept deposits. The venture lending arm will provide debt capital to domestic venturebacked
early-stage and mid-stage Indian companies. Ash Lilani, who leads SVB’s India strategy,
says India has the potential to be SVB’s largest overseas market, and having a full banking license
would allow it to replicate the SVB business model from Silicon Valley—commercial banking for
technology companies and startups.
Sand Hill Road venture firm Sequoia Capital began an aggressive strategy in 2006 to
invest in early stage and startup Indian firms. Today, Sequoia manages five India funds
with a combined value of nearly $1.8 billion and 60 investments. Its latest and largest
fund, the $725 million Sequoia Capital India Growth Fund II, closed in August 2008. The $400
million India Growth Fund I closed in September 2006. A $300 million early-stage fund closed
in August 2007, and Sequoia manages two funds, with a combined $350 million value, that were
part of its May 2006 acquisition of Westbridge Capital Partners.
Westbridge was a cross-border firm with offices in San Francisco and Bangalore, launched in
2000 by four U.S.-educated entrepreneurs: Sumir Chadha, Sandeep Singhal, K.P. Balaraj, and
Surendra Jain. At that time, Westbridge was an early entrant in the India market, with investments
in some 16 companies such as e-learning company Brainvisa Technology, matrimonial
website Shaadi.com, and telecom software provider Bharti Telesoft. The two funds have since
generated $100 million in exits. Westbridge was rebranded as Sequoia Capital India, with offices
in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Menlo Park.
Sequoia’s funds are not sector-specific but have evolved in their focus from offshore services, to
Internet and wireless, and more recently to domestic growth companies. Subsequent investments
have included ICICI OneSource, Idea Cellular, medical and biotech software firm Market Rx
Inc. (acquired by Cognizant Technologies), online education provider TutorVista, search engine
Guruji.com, coffeehouse chain Café Coffee Day, a Chinese fast food chain, pharma and biotech
contract research company GVK Biosciences, car rental agency Carzonrent India, and rural
lender SKS Microfinance.
Sequoia began with seed and early stage investment ($500 thousand to $7 million) in Internet and
wireless companies that had already gotten off the ground with pre-seed financing, had sound
business plans and management teams in place, and were dealing in disruptive, scalable technologies.
The first fund enabled Sequoia to diversify into larger scale, later stage investments in
BPO, Internet, discretionary consumer goods, and life sciences. By 2008, 30–40% of its investments
were early stage and it was beginning to explore smaller investments in the $100 thousand
to $1 million range.
Sequoia principal Shailendra Singh, a graduate of IIT-Bombay and Harvard Business School and
a veteran of Bain & Co., approached Westbridge in 2000 as an entrepreneur looking for funding,
and he joined the company in 2006. With close to a dozen U.S. India-dedicated funds now in the
market, there is a need to stay focused, he says, as too much capital begins chasing too few deals,
and shares become overvalued. He sees potential in “low-end disruption”: companies with technology
that is not cutting-edge globally but is well suited for the growing markets of India and
other emerging economies.
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