Sequoia India names 17 early-stage startups for Surge accelerator programme

Singapore

SEQUOIA India, a branch of the technology-focused American venture capital (VC) firm, has announced the 17 participants in its new accelerator programme called Surge.

The programme is targeted at pre-Series A startups in India and South-east Asia. Four of the startups are based in Singapore, and the rest in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

They span sectors such as travel and hospitality, e-commerce, edtech, fintech/insurtech, consumer brands, software as a service, healthtech and business-to-business commerce. Five startups have at least one female founder.

The 16-week programme, which started on March 25, was designed in such a way that other investors can take part in the funding rounds alongside Surge. About a dozen seed funds and institutional co-investors are joining the rounds, bringing the investment to US$36 million across the 17 companies.

Surge has invested US$1.5 million into each participating startup.

Sequoia India's managing director Shailendra Singh told media outlet TechCrunch in January that these investments will come from the India fund, but eventually, a dedicated Surge fund could be set up.

Sequoia India said that by welcoming seed funds and angels to invest alongside Surge, the programme "helps founders by adding diversity of perspectives and valuable mentor bandwidth".

Co-investors include Silicon Valley's Y Combinator, Singapore VC firms Golden Gate Ventures and SeedPlus, and MassMutual Ventures (MMV) SEA. MMV is the VC arm of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), and the five-month-old MMV SEA is the US$50 million Singapore-based fund for investments in South-east Asia.

The four Singapore-based startups that were selected are:

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