Sequoia to hold investor meet for portfolio companies

Sequoia – Even as India’s start-up ecosystem is shaken by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in the United States, leading venture capital firm Sequoia will host its first-ever investor conference, bringing together over 20 of its scaled and listed portfolio companies and over 25 of the country’s leading public market investors. This interface is regarded as critical, given that many of these leading firms have already scaled up and intend to go public in the future.

The investor conference will be held on March 13 and 14 in Mumbai.

The conference, dubbed Sequoia Horizon, will also bring together over ten leading equity research firms with the founders of these companies.

The Sequoia firms are a diverse group that includes firms that have significantly scaled up as well as some that are publicly traded. Companies in the financial services sector include Pine Labs, CRED, and Finova Capital. There are also several in the consumer space, including HealthKart, Wildcraft, and Prataap Snacks, as well as several in the technology space, including Capillary, Ixigo, Meesho, Moglix, OYO, and Zetwerk.

Sequoia

According to Sequoia insiders, “there is a major transition necessary from being a well-performing private firm to learning the architecture of a successful public company,” as more start-ups find themselves in the position to consider an IPO.

They continued, “In our young ecosystem, we are taking the lead in accelerating this learning curve for leadership teams of private companies as well as for public market funds who need to learn more about the founder-led class of innovative companies before encountering them in the rapid-fire decision-making cycle of an IPO.

A mismatch between private and public market valuations, a lack of sufficient interest in their business concepts, or even doubts about the path to profitability have all contributed to some of India’s renowned start-ups’ forgettable debuts and repeated runs at the public markets.

The sources claimed that the investor group consists of sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and regional mutual funds with a focus on India, including DSP Mutual Fund, Franklin Templeton, HDFC Mutual Fund, IIFL AMC, Kotak Investment Advisers, Mirae Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, among others. The invited research analysts come from 11 equity research companies, including J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citi, and Nuvama (formerly Edelweiss).