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Tag: Sequoia Capital

  • Shivani Maira Shankar appointed as talent partner at Peak XV Partners

    Shivani Maira Shankar appointed as talent partner at Peak XV Partners

    MUMBAI:  Shivani Maira Shankar has been appointed as the talent partner at Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital), effective January 2025. In this role, she will lead talent acquisition efforts for the firm and its portfolio companies across various global regions, including India, Australia, MENA, and Southeast Asia. 

    With a robust background in executive search, Shivani brings extensive experience in helping organisations build high-performing leadership teams. She has a proven track record of partnering with founders to identify mission-driven leaders and tackling talent-related challenges within their firms.

    Shivani’s history includes key roles at Sequoia Capital, where she served as vice president of human capital, and at Executive Access India, where she excelled as associate director. Her expertise encompasses strategic recruitment processes, client and candidate relationship management, and developing top-tier talent pipelines.

    Shivani holds an MA in organisational behaviour from Amity University and a BA in psychology from Delhi University. Her educational journey includes valuable hands-on experience gained through an internship with Bharti Airtel.

    As she steps into this new role at Peak XV, Shivani Maira Shankar looks forward to driving impactful talent strategies and contributing to organisational success in the dynamic investment landscape.
     

  • Sequoia Capital hires Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav as CMO

    Sequoia Capital hires Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav as CMO

    MUMBAI: She built her reputation as a solid marketer building Star India, along with her boss Uday Shankar, as chief marketing officer and president – strategy & innovation. Now the dynamic marketing professional Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav has joined Sequoia Capital as chief marketing officer for India and south east Asia.

    Says Yadav: “I am honoured to join Sequoia Capital India and help daring founders build legendary companies and brands. This is a seminal point of time in the development of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and there is a massive opportunity to create global brands out of the region. I am excited to join this amazing team and partner with an incredibly talented set of founders in achieving this mission.”

    Sequoia Capital has, meanwhile, announced that it has completed other hires: Shweta Rajpal Kohli as head of public policy and Ajey Gore as operating partner, technology.

    Sequoia Capital managing director Shaliendra Singh put out a post on LinkedIn welcoming the new joinees. He added that Gayatri will additionally be working closely with the group’s portfolio CMOs to help them launch and grow brands.

    Highlighted Singh: “The team at Sequoia Capital India feels massively privileged to welcome industry leaders like Gayatri, Ajey and Shweta to our team. Their contributions will undoubtedly benefit dozens of founders and startups across India and SEA and make a dent in the years to come.”

    Sequoia India has invested  at the very early stages in many startups including Citrus, Druva, Faaso's, FreeCharge, Grofers, Healthkart, India Shelter Finance, Mobikwik, Pine Labs, Practo, Prizm Payments, Scio Health and Zilingo.

    Sequoia India recently  closed its sixth fund, at $695 million, which will be used to double down on investments in both early and growth stage companies in the technology, consumer and healthcare sectors across India and southeast Asia.

    It has worked with many founders including Amit Kumat of Prataap Snacks, Ankiti Bose of Zilingo, Ankur Jain of Bira, Byju Raveendran of Byju's, Chatri Sityodtong of One Championship, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Dhiraj Rajaram of Mu Sigma, Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks, Jaspreet Singh of Druva, Kunal Shah of Freecharge, D. Lakshmipathy of Five Star Finance, Lokvir Kapoor of Pine Labs, Nadiem Makarim of Go-Jek, Rajul Garg of GlobalLogic, Ritesh Agarwal of OYO Rooms, Shashank ND of Practo, VSS Mani of JustDial, William Tanuwijaya of Tokopedia.

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  • BankBazaar.com raises Rs 375 crore led by Amazon

    BankBazaar.com raises Rs 375 crore led by Amazon

    MUMBAI: BankBazaar.com has raised Rs 375 crore ($60 Million) in its Series C round of funding led by Amazon with participation from Fidelity Growth Partners and Mousse Partners. Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Walden International also participated in the Series C funding round.

     

    The funds will be primarily deployed towards technology integration, hiring and strengthening partner relationships and to creating a truly phenomenal end-to-end customer experience in order to grow in the online financial services category as a market leader. The company will also invest to upscale its marketing and branding effort to reach out to a larger number of consumers and create a house-hold financial services brand in India.

     

    BankBazaar is also investing heavily on its mobile app. The BankBazaar app, available on both the Android & iOS platforms, will not only help consumers get financial products with ease, but also educate them and help them manage their finances better.

     

    The company plans to also launch other personal finance products to help consumers clinch the best deals. The company is rapidly increasing the depth of its portfolio offerings and has signed on more than 23 bank partners to give the widest range of options to the consumer, available online and via its Android & iOS apps.

     

    With this round of investment, BankBazaar is well positioned to aggressively grow the pie of consumers looking for financial products online and be a thought leader in making it simple for consumers seeking financial products in India.

     

    “With the rapidly evolving online consumer segment across categories, we have seen great demand for this platform. We are currently looking to expand the category as we reinvest all earnings in growing the business intelligently,” said BankBazaar.com CEO Adhil Shetty.

     

     “This investment from Amazon, Fidelity Growth Partners and Mousse Partners reposes faith in our vision and gives us strength to achieve the next phase of growth for the company. It will reinforce our leadership in the country’s online financial market place, as we aim to simplify the sourcing of best financial services – be it loans, credit cards and other personal finance products – for consumers,” he added.

     

    “We are delighted to welcome Amazon to the BankBazaar partnership. The company has made great strides in the last two years and become the premier consumer destination for financial products. With this fund raise, BankBazaar plans to innovate even more to provide the best and fastest experience for consumers,” informed Sequoia Capital managing director Gautam Mago.

     

    Since the last round of funding, BankBazaar’s business model has evolved. The number of transactions on the platform has grown five times since then. The company is actively expanding its product portfolio and depth of its partnerships in each product line. The company is also focusing on made-for-mobile web service and mobile platforms in order to enable larger connect with the audience. Presently, 40 per cent of the users connect to BankBazaar through smartphones. Additionally, online loan applications across home, personal and auto loans are growing by 90 per cent, compared to 15 per cent growth in offline.

  • CarDekho.com raises $50 million in funding led by Hillhouse Capital

    CarDekho.com raises $50 million in funding led by Hillhouse Capital

    MUMBAI: CarDekho.com has closed its second round of funding and has raised $50 million. The funding was led by Hillhouse Capital with participation from Tybourne Capital and Sequoia Capital.

    The single transaction funding was concluded early this week. Elara Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the transaction. With this the parent company Girnar Software is now valued at $300 million.

    Sharing plans about this venture GirnarSoft CEO and co-founder Amit Jain believes that together CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com are by far the largest players in online auto classifieds space by revenue and traffic in the country. Jain’s vision is to be company with global footprint through its innovative products and services.

    “This is the largest quantum of fund raise in this segment in India so far. We see the second round of investment as an endorsement of our strategy and progress so far. Our revenues have grown three-fold since 2013 when we received our first round of funding from Sequoia, and we are doubling our lead generation Y-O-Y. This is the time we are looking to rapidly expand our business and therefore the funding adds to our fast paced growth in the online auto portal segment,” added Jain.

    Jain feels that this is a very exciting time for the company and a high point in the Indian automobile industry.

    “With this funding we have plans to enhance the technology and services of CarDekho.com along with increased focus on brand building and marketing initiatives of the company. As the #1 auto portal of the country, it is also our responsibility to develop the category by providing the best offerings to consumers, best services for dealers and top notch support to OEM manufacturers,” said Jain.

    Commenting on the investment, partner of Hillhouse Capital David Rhee stated that it observes a tremendous growth opportunities in the online automobile classified market in India. “CarDekho, as the clear leading player in this space, is the best positioned to take advantage of this market. We are in the early stages of the development of the auto industry and its transition to online. We are excited to be partnering with such an exceptional management team to continue to build and grow this business over the long term,” Rhee said.

    Tybourne Capital portfolio manager Eashwar Krishnan added, “We have a substantial amount of capital invested across global classified assets and are excited to add CarDekho to our portfolio. We view CarDekho as a direct comparable to Autohome in China (another Tybourne investment), and as the leader in the space, we expect CarDekho to capture a substantial portion of the auto classifieds market in India. We look forward to partnering with the management team as the company moves into its next phase of growth.”

    Sequoia Capital partner Shailesh Lakhani said, “CarDekho has redefined the purchase experience for car buyers in India. Led by Amit and Anurag, the company has assembled one of the best internet teams in India. We are excited to welcome Hillhouse and Tybourne as new investors to CarDekho and their support as we continue the journey to building a large internet auto company.”

     

  • Zomato raises $60 million from Vy Capital and existing investors

    Zomato raises $60 million from Vy Capital and existing investors

    MUMBAI: Zomato, the popular restaurant search and discovery service, has closed a fresh round of funding of $60 million at a post-money valuation of $660 million.

    These funds will be used to accelerate Zomato’s global expansion and new product development. This round of funding is being led jointly by Info Edge (India) and Vy Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital. This takes Zomato’s total funding to over $113 million. Zomato has earlier raised $53 million from Info Edge (India) and Sequoia Capital over multiple rounds of funding.

    Founded in 2008, Zomato provides up-to-date detailed information, menus and photos for over 300,000 restaurants across the 18 countries it is present in on both web and mobile.

    Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said, “Zomato is well on its way to becoming the world’s local expert in dining out. In the past year, we have added eight countries and millions of new users to our foodie truck. From just restaurant discovery and menus, Zomato has now become a vast global community driven by social interactions. This is an exciting point in our journey, as we accelerate our way across the globe, and build a product that will continue to redefine the way people dine.”

    Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani added, “Our first investment in Zomato was made almost 4 years ago, and the team has shown phenomenal progress since then to build the Zomato that we know and use. The company is growing very fast, and we are proud to back them up to further grow the business – both inside and outside of India.”

    Vy Capital founding partner Alexander Tamas said, “Zomato is one of the first internet companies out of India with a consumer product that is scaling on a global basis and a team that is executing extremely well against the opportunity. We look forward to being long-term partners of the company as it establishes itself among the global internet leaders.”

    Headquartered in New Delhi, Zomato plans to expand to 14 more countries across Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Americas.

     

  • Karishma Lintas wins the creative mandate of Paper Boat

    Karishma Lintas wins the creative mandate of Paper Boat

    MUMBAI: Karishma Lintas, a part of Lintas India group, has won the creative mandate of Paper Boat. Karishma Lintas edged out Happy Creative Services & Dentsu in the multi-agency pitch that was held a few weeks ago.

     

    As its partner, Karishma Lintas would be responsible for providing creative insights and solutions to Paper Boat and will also chart out strategic recommendation, positioning and marketing of brand Paper Boat across various media.

     

    Hector Beverages CEO Neeraj Kakkar commented: “Design thinking is at the crux of Paper Boat and we believe that the same applies for Karishma Lintas. With a very clear mandate in mind, we decided to appoint Karishma Lintas as the creative agency for our brand. Backed by a strong team and disruptive ideas we were very confident about our choice and the quality of deliveries. Karishma Lintas understands our brand sensibilities and their work has been inspiring.”

     

    Paper Boat was launched nationally in August 2013 and is among the fast-growing juice brands from the stable of Hector Beverages. Paper Boat started out with two variants – Jaljeera and Aamras, and has since expanded its lineup to include seven new flavours comprising Aamras, Jaljeera, Jamun, Kalakhatta, Aam Pana, Kokum, Imli Ka Amlana and Golgappe Ka Paani. Its latest offering includes traditionally brewed Tulsi Tea and Ginger and Lemon.

     

    The agency’s executive director GV Krishnan said, “We admire the vision and purpose of brand Paper Boat aspiring to reduce cynicism in society and to reaffirm faith in life. Through our creative solutions, we genuinely believe that we could win the heart of every Indian by emotionally connecting with his childhood memory and serving them a delicious traditional Indian drink to savour. We’ve had inspiring and transparent discussions with the founders of Paper Boat and are excited to create an awesome portfolio going ahead for Karishma Lintas.”

     

    Paper Boat is backed by Sequoia Capital, Catamaran Ventures (NR Narayan Murthy’s VC firm) and Foot Print Ventures and is run by industry veterans – Neeraj Kakkar, James Nutall, Suhas Misra and Neeraj Biyani.

  • FreeCharge raises $33 million Series B

    FreeCharge raises $33 million Series B

    MUMBAI: FreeCharge, an online platform for recharge, utility payments, promotions and couponing, has raised $33 million in Series B funding from Sequoia Capital, Sofina and RuNet.

     

    The online portal, which is witnessing a rapid growth, is building an advertising platform that captures online and offline purchase behaviour and brand preferences of consumers, by offering incentives and coupons to users to transact on its platform.

     

    Mobile transactions on the Freecharge app have grown 30x since the beginning of 2014, and the company has more than 10 million registered users. FreeCharge CEO Alok Goel said, “We have been able to assemble one of the best start-up teams in the country and are leading the mobile internet revolution in India. 70 per cent of our transactions come from mobile platforms and we are growing more than 400 per cent year on year.”

     

    Sequoia Capital India Advisors MD Shailendra Singh said, “Freecharge is creating a unique new category, an advertising platform with the ‘consumption graph’ for the most valuable online consumers. We are very impressed with the team’s execution and the rapid growth and engagement of users on the platform.”

     

    RuNet investment officer Galina Chifina added, “Freecharge is one of the most exciting companies in our Indian portfolio with a highly innovative business model that has global appeal and scalability. We are happy to participate in the new round to support the new initiatives the company has embarked upon. The team has done an awesome job to position Freecharge among the leaders of the mobile recharge/payment and data analysis market in India and we believe the new round will help the company to grow even faster.”

     

    The company has added Gokul Rajaram, Koh Boon Hwee, Dhiraj Rajaram to its board of advisors. Apart from this, the online platform has also announced the appointment of Ninad Y Takpere as the chief business development officer. Takpere said, “I am inspired by the innovation that FreeCharge has brought to the Indian e-commerce space.  I have great respect for the democratic leadership values and professionalism at FreeCharge. I am quite excited about my role and look forward to contribute and be part of the growth journey of FreeCharge.”

     

    FreeCharge also recently acquired Preburn, in addition to Wishberg, its first acquisition.