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Time of India
25-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Scoop: Peak XV out to raise $1.2 billion fund, its first since Sequoia split
Peak XV Partners , the rebranded entity that split from Silicon Valley 's marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital two years ago, is set to raise its first independent fund with a target corpus of $1.2-1.4 billion, said three people familiar with the matter. The fresh capital being racked up will focus on investing in early-stage ventures across India and Southeast Asia, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as the talks are private. Peak XV, which has backed the likes of Zomato, Cred and Groww, also makes larger investments through its growth vehicle, which is not a part of this fundraise, one of the people cited above said. The latest fundraising marks a crucial phase for Peak XV, which is trying to establish itself as a standalone identity after the Sequoia spin-off in June 2023. Sequoia US broke away from its India and China partnerships at the same time, signalling a retreat from Asia for the firm that had backed tech giants like Apple, WhatsApp and Google in their very early days. Peak XV's $2.85 billion eighth fund under the Sequoia Capital was announced in 2022 – for investing in venture, growth and Southeast Asia. Of the total pool, $2 billion was earmarked for India investments, while the remaining was for Southeast Asia. In 2024, the VC firm downsized this fund by 16% with the bulk of the reduction coming in its growth-stage allocation. 'They had a meeting with their limited partners (sponsors in funds) recently and expressed their intention to launch their maiden fund by end of the year…The firm expects to close the fundraise by early next year and will officially inform their LPs soon,' said another person privy to the matter. Peak XV Partners managing director Shailendra Singh did not respond to an email seeking comment. The new vehicle — ninth for the outfit since its launch in 2006 in India — will be almost half the size of its previous fund despite its resizing last year. The investment firm has since 2006 raised almost $9 billion in capital across funds. US market in focus Over the past two years, the VC fund has been looking to establish itself in the US, where it was unable to compete for deals due to its franchise partnership with Sequoia. 'Keeping in mind the number of India-origin founders who are based in the US, it makes a lot of sense for them to have a team there. To add to that the entire AI ecosystem is unfolding there which they want to capture,' said a person familiar with the thinking at the firm. Along with the frenetic pace at which deals are closing in artificial intelligence , the US has a large number of Indian founders who run cross-border companies in the enterprise segment. To push its presence in Silicon Valley, the fund hired Arnav Sahu from Y Combinator as its first investment partner based in San Francisco, adding to a six-member US team. Peak XV has invested in Atomicwork, Rapid Canvas and Supabase—which are based in the US. Top deck changes Peak XV's fundraising comes in the backdrop of a slew of leadership changes at the fund — including a churn in its leadership ranks — amid a prolonged VC funding winter and increasing scrutiny from limited partners globally. In February, two managing directors, Shailesh Lakhani and Abheek Anand, announced their exit from the firm . This was preceded by exits of managing director Piyush Gupta, who quit in April 2024 to launch his secondaries focused fund; chief marketing officer Gayatri Yadav, who left to join Reliance Industries; chief public policy officer Shweta Rajpal Kohli; and Anandamoy Roychowdhary, who was a partner at Surge, Peak XV's seed-stage investing programme. In March, Shraeyansh Thakur, a principal involved with the firm's early-stage investments, also announced his departure. ET had reported on February 11 that Peak XV could see more churn in its top deck over the course of the year – which the firm had denied at the time. IPOs and exits Since 2006, the venture capital firm – which has backed new-age companies such as Razorpay, Oyo and Truecaller, in addition to traditional businesses such as Prataap Snacks, Five Star Business Finance and Indigo Paints – has realised almost $6 billion in cash through exits from both public markets and private transactions. Last year the fund clocked exits of nearly $1.2 billion with five of its portfolio companies – Ixigo, Awfis, Go Digit General Insurance, Blackbuck and Mobikwik – going public. To be sure, Peak XV did not sell any stake in Go Digit and Mobikwik during their public issues. Additionally, Peak XV scored $185 million from a stock sale in Indigo Paints, $150 million through a block deal in Five Star Business Finance, clocked $73 million of liquidity through the sale of shares in Mamaearth parent Honasa Consumer and closed a $40 million stake sale in Truecaller. It also closed private market secondary deals in portfolio companies such as Healthkart, Rebel Foods, Finova and Cloudnine Hospitals. Since 2020, more than 20 of Peak XV's portfolio companies have gone public. Multiple other Peak XV portfolio companies are finalising plans to go public, including Groww, Meesho and Zetwerk. Peak XV's fundraising will further add to the available capital for investments in the Indian startups. Over the last year, firms including Accel India ($650 million), A91 Partners ($665 million), Bessemer Venture Partners ($350 million), Stellaris Venture Partners ($300 million), Cornerstone Ventures ($200 million) and Prime Venture Partners ($100 million) have closed or are in the process of raising their new India-focused funds.
Forbes
11-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Sequoia Spinoff Peak XV Returns To The Bay Area With New Partner
PeakXV's managing director Shailendra Singh signalled a push into making investments in the United States with the hire of Y Combinator investor Arnav Sahu. TechinAsia Nearly two years ago venture capital's biggest global brand Sequoia Capital split up with its China and India funds. Now, its former India and Southeast Asia arm, rebranded as Peak XV, is back home in Silicon Valley. The $9 billion venture fund has hired partner Arnav Sahu to head up investment from a new San Francisco-based team. Peak XV's managing partner Shailendra Singh said that the fund needed a permanent presence in the United States to work with the best founders and help them scale globally. Peak XV had been investing globally, but a recent migration of international founders moving to the Bay Area to build their startups has shifted its focus. 'We are partnering with more and more companies that are born outside the U.S. but their target market is the U.S.,' he told Forbes. The plan to expand to the Bay Area with an initial focus on seed stage and growth stage deals had been on Peak XV's timeline since its split from Sequoia Capital but the explosion of investment in artificial intelligence has expedited its schedule, said Singh. 'The minute we became independent, we were transparent with other leaders at Sequoia that it would be critical for us to start to build out a U.S. team,' he told Forbes in an interview. Peak XV's first partner hire in the United States will be Arnav Sahu. Sahu started his investing career at Spark Capital after working for networking giant Cisco, and earlier this year joined Peak XV from Y Combinator where he focused on growth investments in startups like ScaleAI, Vanta, and Rippling. 'Arnav fit our bill perfectly because he had seen a lot of seed at Y Combinator and growth with YC Continuity,' Singh explained. Peak XV has slowly been building a team in the United States since the split from its Sand Hill Road-based parent. It hired former Sequoia talent partner Jamie Bott in 2023; Operating partners Chris Merritt, and Dini Mehta joined over the last year. Sequoia Capital and its former China and India funds split in June 2023. The decision to do so was largely driven by how best to manage diverging funds and competition between rival startups in each portfolio. Rising tensions between the United States and China also played a role. Sequoia was one of a number of venture funds that drew attention from the Biden Administration over its backing for Chinese technology companies. A number of other global venture funds like DCM Ventures, Matrix Partners and GGV Capital also moved over the last two years to spin out China-focused teams. Since the split, Hongshan Capital (formerly Sequoia China) has opened offices in London and Singapore, potentially putting it in competition with Sequoia's Europe team, and Peak XV's Southeast Asia unit based in the city-state. Peak XV itself has made a string of investments in U.S.-based companies like database startup Supabase, AI agent platform Atomicwork and marketing unicorn Hightouch. Singh doesn't anticipate any friction with his former partners in the U.S. 'We don't have any crazy bold plans for the U.S. where we will be investing billions,' he told Forbes. 'The average successful company has 10 to 20 investors on the cap table and they can have Sequoia, or another top U.S. VC, and us as a complimentary strength.' Peak XV's new international focus comes amid an investment boom in its home market in India. Pitchbook reported that VC fundraising in India grew 77% last year defying a global slump. That surge follows a record number of initial public offerings on Mumbai's National Stock Exchange in 2024. The bull run on India's public markets has led to 16 IPOs from Peak XV's portfolio over the last five years, with around $1.2 billion in exits over the last 12 months alone. While the IPO window in the United States, and Europe seems to have been slammed shut by President Donald Trump's trade war, Peak XV has at least three Indian unicorns including payments platform Pine Labs preparing to go public. 'We have three big IPOs we are very excited about and another 15 or 20 companies preparing for IPOs,' said Singh. Despite this several senior partners have left Peak XV since its split with Sequoia, and the fund has trimmed its fund size and fees in its last fund raising in 2024, according to TechCrunch.
