MUMBAI: Nearly three years after splitting from its Silicon Valley parent Sequoia Capital, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia) has raised $1.3 billion for a clutch of funds to bet on startup founders building in India and the broader APAC region. The capital will be deployed across three funds–India seed, India venture which will largely cover early stage startups and APAC. The cheque amount for seed or very early-stage funding will be in the range of up to $5 million while India venture fund will make investments in the range of $5-$15 million, in cases going up to $20 million. The fresh capital sits alongside large portions of uninvested funds from its $1 billion growth fund raised in 2022, giving the company room to invest in startups across scale and sizes.“We have an existing growth fund that is about half uninvested. We are continuing to invest from that fund wherein we can fund up to $75-$100 million at the top end,” Shailendra Singh, MD at Peak XV Partners told TOI in an interview on Friday, even as he added that for growth investing, India still is one of the world’s most expensive markets. “What is happening in tech globally is that the dollars are concentrating into fewer and fewer companies and those very few companies are becoming enormous in scale. The phenomenon is also playing out in startups that are becoming big. In growth equity, we have to find the very few companies that will become very big and I think that’s one way in which tech investing is changing quite a bit,” Singh said.The fundraise comes days after three MDs quit the firm due to disagreements over economics and payouts, adding to the list of several senior level exits at the company since the split with Sequoia Capital. The funds have been backed by a mix of investors comprising universities, endowments, foundations and a few sovereign funds, Singh said and the target will be to exhaust the capital in two to three years. “The strong backing from our Limited Partners (LPs) for our inaugural Peak XV funds reflects their conviction in our markets, strategy and team,” the company said in a statement. Launched in 2006 as Sequoia India, the VC firm has been an early investor in a bunch of local blue-chip unicorns which today have grown to public listed companies such as Meesho, Zomato (now Eternal) and Groww.Besides continuing to back startups in core areas fintech and consumer, capital from the new funds will also be earmarked for AI-native startups and firms that are adopting an AI-first approach, Singh said. “AI is beginning to impact all other categories. What will be the AI applications in fintech, for instance, is one area we are very excited about. It’s only a matter of time we will see AI applications everywhere, Singh said, adding that India specific sovereign AI investments is another area the firm is actively considering.In all, Peak XV has backed over 450 companies in the broader APAC region including India of which 36 are listed on stock exchanges across geographies. The firm said that in 2024 and 2025, it generated over $1 billion in realised proceeds (return) each year, exceeding the total capital invested.
