Sequoia Southeast Asia Debuts 12,5 Trillion Rupiah Managed Fund, Majority of Indonesian Startups Inject

Sequoia Southeast Asia announced an initial managed fund for the Southeast Asia region of $850 million (over 12,5 trillion Rupiah). The venture capitalist will inject potential startups from various stages, from the initial stage to the growth stage. Interestingly, they said they would make Indonesia a priority country.

Sequoia Southeast Asia Managing Director Abheek Anand said, "Over the last 10 years the company has invested in several initial rounds of some Indonesian startups, including Gojek, Tokopedia, Kopi Kenangan, Seeds, Lummo, and others. Along with the growth of the digital economy, it saw an explosion in numbers founder who built the next generation of legendary companies.

"We look forward to partnering with them right from the idea stage to IPO and beyond, and bringing five decades of global investment and corporate development experience to help contribute to the future of Indonesia's digital economy," he said in an official statement, Tuesday (14/6).

Sequoia's serious commitment began with a small experiment in a room in a quiet building in Singapore 10 years ago. Having spent a lot of time here, the region's tech ecosystem is showing many of the same early signs of growth as has been seen in India and China. With a current team of 40 people from 12 nationalities, Sequoia now has a diverse portfolio of start-up, venture and growth investments, and accelerator programs such as Surge and Spark.

To inject more startups in Southeast Asia, they will continue to bring in their large portfolio of specialist teams to partner with partners founder at their most important moments and push them through the accelerator program. Also, doubling down on initiatives to collaborate across its ecosystem --- with founder, governments, fellow investors and partners --- to help the Southeast Asia region become bigger, healthier and more sustainable than ever before.

Accelerator program

One of Sequoia Capital's flagship programs is Surge. Through this program, startups that are still in their early stages can get mentoring to support capital which is relevant. Surge combines $1 million to $2 million in start-up capital with company building support, a global curriculum, and support from a community of mentors and startup founders.

"We see the Surge program as the first step for startups that are still in their early stages. We want to establish partnerships with more startups in Indonesia," said Abheek separately in the interview with DailySocial.id.

For those who have entered the Surge program and managed to get funding, in the future if they have potential, Sequoia will provide investment in the next funding round. Thus, the Surge program is an opening for them to be able to get further funding opportunities.

Startups that initially graduated from the Surge program and managed to pocket advanced investments from Sequoia Capital include Lummo and Qoala. Currently, there are 9 startups that have graduated from the Surge program. Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital itself has been involved in 22 startups in Indonesia. Among them are Traveloka, Gudangada, GoTo, and Kopi Kenangan.

Next, the Sequoia Spark program initiated by Sequoia India to support women's efforts. This $100.000 grant program along with mentoring, wants to invite more women in India and the Southeast Asia region to become entrepreneurs.

This program is held by providing in-depth direct assistance to 15 female-led startups each year and sufficient capital as an initial cost to start a business. The first cohort of the Sequoia Spark program spans a wide variety of fields, including edtech, fintech, SaaS, and crypto. The cohort combines seven startups from Southeast Asia, seven from India and one from the United Arab Emirates. From Indonesia Sribuu successfully secured mentoring and seed funding from Sequoia Capital.

"Mentoring being part of Sequoia, we not only act as business partners but can also help them in the form of mentoring through the programs we offer. It is hoped that it can help the community because all of our programs are built based on the existing stages. Starting from Surge for early-stage startups, Spark for women and we also have programs for startups that have entered the advanced stages such as series B to those who have become unicorn and decacorn, said Abhik.