Sequoia Capital India, one of the most active venture capital firms in India, is raising $200 million (about Rs 1,377 crore at current exchange rate) to add to its existing fund, two people aware of the development told Mint.
In August 2018, Sequoia raised $695 million in its sixth fund to invest in startups across India and Southeast Asia.
From the sixth fund, its Indian investments include two-wheeler rental startup Bounce, payments aggregator BharatPe and student housing firm Stanza Living.
Large investments in the past year include online car retailer CarDekho, logistics firm Blackbuck and Freshworks, which provides software for customer sales and marketing.
The investor has seen a bunch of highly successful exits such as Byju’s and stands to make jackpot returns from its investment in hospitality chain OYO, in which founder Ritesh Agarwal intends to boost his stake.
In another development, State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to raise up to Rs 6,000 crore ($871.4 million at current exchange rate) by selling a partial stake in SBI Cards Payment and Services Pvt. Ltd, two people familiar with the development told The Economic Times. The credit card joint venture is 26% owned by global private equity firm Carlyle.
SBI Cards’ proposed initial public offer (IPO) is pegged at about Rs 8,000 crore and is going to be primarily a sale of shares by investors, said one of the persons cited above. The company may raise up to Rs 1,000 crore, he added.
The firm is looking at a valuation of up to Rs 40,000 crore, said a top merchant banker familiar with the development. Previously, in 2017, SBI raised Rs 5,600 crore from Carlyle by selling a minority stake in SBI Life Insurance.
Carlyle bought GE Capital’s stake in SBI Cards in 2017 for about Rs 2,000 crore.
Meanwhile, US-based Ebix Inc. has bid for Mumbai-based Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, two people in the know told The Economic Times.
One of the persons said that the negotiations were veering around the upfront payment that Ebix had offered to the consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India. The lenders are unhappy with the terms of the offer, he added.
Trimax is backed by Aditya Birla Private Equity, Zephyr Peacock, and BanyanTree Growh Capital. The company attempted to provide exit to the lenders previously but the plan did not materialise.
In March, Nasdaq-listed Ebix offered to buy Gurugram-based travel portal Yatra Online in an all-stock deal.