Women are given an equity-free grant of $100,000 entrepreneurs in India and Southeast Asia, the firm said. It will provide mentorship to 15 women-led startups and provide capital to cover some of the start-up costs. a type of tree said.
Applications for the schedule, announced in July, closed in September. More than 250 women founders had applied, the venture fund said.
According to data sourced from Tracxn and Crunchbase, only 12% of venture-backed startups in India and 20% in the ASEAN region have at least one female founder by 2020.
Early stage funds are increasingly trying to reach out to women entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year, Kalaari Capital launched CXXO, an initiative where it has set aside $10 million (Rs 74 crore) annually to invest in startups, with female founders making key decisions.
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“We look forward to taking a small but meaningful step towards addressing the gender imbalance that exists in the startup ecosystem,” Sequoia said in a statement.
The group will participate in monthly mentorship sessions, access select Surge (its accelerator program) sessions, and practical support from Sequoia India portfolio experts in recruitment, legal, finance, product, technology and marketing.
“Each of the founders is matched by a senior Sequoia India investment advisor and an experienced startup founder from Sequoia Capital India’s portfolio, who will mentor them over the next 12 months.”
This consultation will be to help the founders with a product and go-to-market roadmap, which, in turn, will help them raise their seed and Series A rounds.
Advisors include Ankiti Bose, cofounder and CEO of Zilingo; Ashwini Ashokan, Founder and CEO, Mad Street Den; Divya Gokulnath, Co-Founder, Byju’s; Hande Silinger, cofounder and CEO, Insider; Jitendra Gupta, Founder and CEO, Jupiter; Julian Artop, Founder and CEO, Zenyum; Kunal Shah, Founder, Credits, and Lalit Keshare, Co-Founder and CEO, Grow.
These startups, seven from India, seven from Southeast Asia and one from the Middle East, are led by 20 women founders – building products in the fintech, ed-tech, software as a service, and consumer internet sectors.
According to the firm, the founders come from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Half of the startups in this group have been building global companies from day one.
“We were blown away by the ideas, intensity and passion of these applicants. Many have stellar backgrounds with deep industry experience. While some of the ideas were quite crude, the quality of those ideas was very strong,” said Sakshi Chopra, Managing Director, Sequoia India said.
“We also have our first female crypto founder,” she said.
Startups in India include The Nestry, a retailer for curated parenting and childcare products; Linecraft AI, an industrial Internet of Things startup; The Loop Panel, which helps convert customer interactions into actionable insights; Jify, which aims to empower employees with complete flexibility and access to their earnings in real time; Finded, which enables access to financial services for working class Indians; Initial Phase, which offers live online classes; and Nume Crypto, a startup focused on making crypto transactions simple and affordable.