3 Indonesian Women Founders Selected to Participate in the Second Sequoia Spark Cohort

Program fellowship focused on driving more women entrepreneurs from Sequoia Southeast Asia and India, Sequoia Spark, announced its second cohort. The company prepares grants and guidance funds worth $ 100.000 or around 1,5 billion Rupiah to assist founders in developing their business.

In the second cohort of the Sequoia Spark program, there are 12 female founders trying to solve problems in various sectors and industries ranging from climate technology, health, SaaS, B2B, consumer internet, D2C, and web3. Three of them are startups from Indonesia, namely Natalia Rialucky Marsudi (Fairatmos), Inez Wihardjo (Gigit.ai), and Carina Lukito (Little Joy).

Fairatmos itself is a local carbon technology startup. The company has announced that it has secured Rp 69 billion in initial funding led by Go-Ventures and FFB Renewable Creations. Fairatmos has the ambition to democratize access to carbon markets through a platform that supports the development of carbon sequestration projects for communities, cooperatives and other parties.

Meanwhile, Gigit.ai is a web3 startup that aims to help democratize gig economy in South East Asia. The company is targeting two sides of the market, namely AI companies that need data to be labeled and aggregated. In addition, the workers who can use the solution mobile-first to meet needs.

Founded in 2021, Little Joy is a startup trade for mothers & babies who are built. This is the first digital ecosystem that focuses on the first 1000 days of child development, which is known to be the most important period in human development to avoid malnutrition.

The Spark program has been carefully designed to help people founder women build the foundation of a company that lasts. Along with a rigorous curriculum, respectively founder has been matched with founder experienced startups from the Sequoia Southeast Asia and India portfolio for one-on-one mentoring throughout the program.

These seasoned mentors include Insider's Hande Cillinger, Zenyum's Julian Artopé, and Carousell's Siu Rui. Guidance in this program will be a critical foundation in building a strong product and go-to-market roadmap which, will help mobilize their first round of fundraising.

In addition, participants had the opportunity to be mentored by senior investment advisers from Sequoia Southeast Asia and India throughout the program. They also have access to select Surge sessions, and get hands-on assistance from Sequoia Southeast Asia and India portfolio specialists from recruiting, product, legal, finance, product, technology to marketing.

Sequoia accelerator program

As one of the venture capitalists who is quite active in providing funding to startups in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, Sequoia Capital also has a flagship acceleration program named Arises. Through this program, startups that are still in their early stages can get mentoring to support capital which is relevant.

In the past three years, Surge has grown rapidly, incl strengthen commitment by increasing the disbursement of funds for its early-stage startups. Previously they gave seed funding in the range of $1 million - $2 million, now increased to $3 million.

Up to this point, Surge had entered the 7th cohort. The community already houses 281 founder of 127 startups in 16 sectors. The startups under cover have collectively raised over IDR 25,2 trillion ($1,7 billion), with more than 60% of companies from the first five cohorts raising series A funding and beyond.

Even though it has been hit by a pandemic and issues of an economic recession, the startup ecosystem in this region is said to be at a very important point. More and more people recognize that diversity is good for business, society and the economy.

Through each program it undertakes, Sequoia Southeast Asia and India look forward to collaborating with other funds and angel investors to support founders in their journey – and to inspire generations founder next.