Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s Surge program for early-stage start-ups, is expanding its funding aperture from the current $1-2 million investment ticket size to $3 million with no minimum.

This change is expected to make the program relevant for a far larger set of founders, including those who are just starting up as well as those who wish to raise extra capital.

“Raising the ceiling gives early-stage founders the runway and time they need to find product-market fit and build a strong team before raising a Series A. This is critical in any market cycle, and even more so at a time when investors are being more cautious and follow-on rounds may take longer to close,” the firm said in a statement.

Vibrant cohorts

Across six cohorts, Surge has partnered with 246 founders from 112 start-ups — including 45 from Southeast Asia and 64 from India. Surge start-ups have collectively raised over $1.5 billion in follow-on rounds. Surge’s founders are building in sectors including edtech, fintech, agritech, healthtech, supply chain and logistics, and consumer brands. 

“Over 40 per cent of Surge start-ups are software companies that are building for the world, from day one. At a simplistic level, instead of focusing on the Indian economy, which is $3 trillion, or the SEA region which also has about $3 trillion of GDP, these companies are focusing on over $80 trillion of global GDP from the very beginning,” said Rajan Anandan, MD, Sequoia India and Surge.

Earlier this month, Sequoia India and Sequoia Southeast Asia collectively raised $2.85 billion across a set of funds, including India venture and growth funds and an $850 million Southeast Asian fund.

Sequoia’s India portfolio includes companies like 1MG, BharatPe, Blinkit (formerly Grofers), Byju’s, Cars24, Coinswitch Kuber, CRED, among others. Across Sequoia India and SEA portfolio, its eight portfolio companies have gone public in the last year including the likes of Zomato, Freshworks, and Nykaa. 

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