Sequoia’s Surge accelerator enlists seven Indian startups for third batch

By Joseph Rai

  • 27 Apr 2020
Credit: 123RF.com

Venture capital and growth-stage investor Sequoia’s accelerator programme Surge, which was launched last year to sharpen its focus on early-stage funding, has enlisted 15 startups for its third batch.

Seven of the 15 startups selected are from India, according to a Surge blog post on Monday. Its second batch had selected 20 startups, 12 of which were from India.

The latest batch of startups come from various sectors including software-as-a-service (SaaS), developer tools, consumer, fitness, food and beverages, education and health.

Surge said that 80% startups in this batch have come on board with institutional investors, and almost half have angel co-investors. Such startups include data platform Atlan and digital procurement platform Proco.

Atlan counts Waterbridge Ventures and Rajan Anandan as investors. Anandan was roped in by Sequoia from Google last year to focus on Surge . Similarly, Blume Ventures and Beenext have backed Procol.

Besides, community management platform Convosight has IvyCap as a co-investor. And VCCircle reported last week that Snapdeal co-founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, had invested smart water purifier DrinkPrime.

Online fitness app Fittr and site-reliability engineering platform Last9 are backed by Better Capital.

One of the Indian startups the accelerator has selected is in stealth mode and operates in the personal care segment.

Surge also said that one-third of the companies in this cohort have at least one female founder.

This cohort of startups has raised over $39 million in their Surge rounds. The accelerator said that the startups from its previous two batches have raised $250 million in subsequent financing rounds after completing Surge.

Some of the startups from its first two batches which have raised subsequent rounds include fintech venture Khatabook and ed-tech company Doubtnut.