In ‘funding winter’, Sequoia remains leading VC firm

On Jul 4, 2022

NEW DELHI : Marquee Indian and global venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, Accel, Alpha Wave Global and Blume Ventures stayed more active in the first half of this calendar year compared to a year earlier, with some more than doubling their investments despite talks of a ‘funding winter’ in the startup ecosystem.

Sequoia retained its pole position as the most active venture capital firm in the six months ended June, and was among those that more than doubled their new investments.

According to VCCEdge, the data and intelligence platform of VCCircle, Sequoia struck a total of 73 deals during the period, almost split equally between new and follow-on investments, compared to 47 in the first six months of 2021. It made 36 new investments this year, up from 17 last year.

In the whole of 2021, the local arm of the Menlo Park-based firm made 109 investments. With Sequoia having raised a record $2.85 billion new fund focused on India and Southeast Asia just last month, the venture capital firm will likely surpass the 100 deal mark this year as well.

Tiger Global Management, which raced to the second position in 2021 from the eighth spot in 2020, retained its position in the first half of this year. The US investment firm, known for being an early backer of Flipkart, struck 45 investments till June, nearly double from last year’s 23.

However, with Tiger Global having reportedly almost fully utilized its new fund of $12.7 billion raised earlier this year, it remains to be seen whether the firm will stay in action in the latter half of the year.

Accel, which slipped to the fourth rank in the first half of last year from its usual second spot, was the third most active venture capital firm during January-June with 33 deals compared to 18 in the same period last year.

An early backer of startups such as Flipkart and Freshworks, Accel raised $650 million in commitments for its seventh fund, its largest till date, to invest in India and Southeast Asia, earlier this year.

Alpha Wave Global, which stormed into the most active venture capital list last year, climbed to the fourth spot from the tenth position last year. Alpha Wave (formerly Falcon Edge) struck 25 deals this year, compared to 10 in the six months to June last year.

Blume, a backer of recently-minted unicorn Purplle, moved to the top five from the sixth spot last year with 22 investments.

A unicorn is a privately-held startup with a valuation of at least $1 billion. The homegrown venture capital firm, also a backer of startups such as Unacademy, Slice and GreyOrange, is currently raising its larger fourth fund.

These were followed by Nexus Venture Partners (21), Elevation Capital (19), Matrix Partners (17) and Chiratae Ventures (17). Elevation Capital was ranked sixth in the same period last year with 15 deals while Nexus and Matrix were tied in the eighth spot and Chiratae stayed in the most active venture capital list in tenth position with 10 deals. Notably, Elevation Capital, formerly SAIF Partners, raised $670 million for its fifth India-focused vehicle earlier this year, while Matrix began the process of raising a new fund last month.