Sequoia Capital | Business Upturn

Former Google employee alleges discrimination in promotion protocols

Aishi Saha — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 14:31:21 +0000

Shaun Maguire, a former employee of Google and a notable figure in the tech industry, has publicly accused the company of racial discrimination, claiming he was denied a promotion on the basis of being a white man. The allegations surfaced through Maguire’s social media account, where he shared his experience of working at Google.

Maguire, who now serves with Sequoia Capital, a prominent venture capital firm renowned for its contributions to Silicon Valley giants like Apple and Google, took to X (formerly Twitter) to shed light on his ordeal. In a series of tweets, Maguire recounted how he was informed by his supervisor at Google that he could not be promoted due to his ethnicity.

According to Maguire’s account, his supervisor explicitly stated, “you’re one of the highest performing people here but I can’t promote you right now because I have a quota.” This statement, as conveyed by Maguire, paints a stark picture of the alleged discriminatory practices within Google’s promotion protocols.

The incident reportedly occurred in response to Maguire’s query posted in December 2023, where he sought opinions from his followers regarding whether he should disclose his experience of being overlooked for promotion based on his race. Finally, in a recent tweet, Maguire expressed his frustration.

The accusation has sparked renewed scrutiny over diversity and inclusion policies within the tech industry, particularly within Silicon Valley giants like Google. While tech companies often espouse values of diversity and equality, Maguire’s claims raise questions about the efficacy of these initiatives in practice.

Google, known for its progressive workplace culture and advocacy for diversity, now faces allegations of failing to uphold these principles in its internal operations. The controversy surrounding Maguire’s allegations underscores the broader societal conversation regarding racial equity and fairness in professional environments.

In response to the allegations, Google has yet to issue an official statement. However, the incident serves as a reminder of the ongoing challenges faced by minority groups in accessing equal opportunities within the tech sector and highlights the importance of fostering inclusive workplaces free from discrimination.

Intra-city logistics provider Porter raises ₹750 crores in the latest funding round

Cheryll Jain — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 13:16:47 +0000

Tech-based intra-city logistics provider Porter hit Rs. 3,750 crore (approx. $500 million) in valuation following the latest round of funding during which the company managed to raise Rs.750 crores, Porter announced on Monday, October 25.

In the series E round of funding led by Tiger Global Management and Vitruvian Partners, the company saw participation from existing investors with existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Lightrock India. Meanwhile, IndigoEdge acted as the exclusive advisor to Porter during the funding round.

With the fresh funds, the company will look towards expanding operations across the top 35 cities in India, acquiring new talent and establishing and strengthening its position in the on-demand logistics market. Porter has continuously recorded a triple-digit annual growth since its inception in 2014 and is currently operational in 13 cities in India with more than 5 million customers and 200,000 drivers on board.

Porter offers an intra-city logistics service and has launched an on-demand marketplace for LCVs and bikes. It is also becoming a key contender in packers and movers services.

The company has reported that its tech-based marketplace helps drivers earn 30 per cent more and also offers a lower waiting time to customers, factors that sets it apart from other competitors. Moreover, Porter is also one of the only logistics models that are 100 per cent asset-light and have a negative working capital cycle.

Commenting on the development, Porter’s Chief Executive Officer Pranav Goel stated that keeping in mind the current economic scenario, the successful funding round comes as a testament to the execution of the company’s entire team. He also expressed excitement to have onboard the two Global funds leading the company’s latest funding round.

Food Delivery giant Zomato denies media reports of filling drafts with SEBI

News Desk — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:26:25 +0000

Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato in a tweet said, “Wouldn’t typically comment on speculation but had to stop the barrage of phone calls from the press and friends/family. Back to work (sic).”

According to a report of MoneyControl, Zomato was likely to file draft papers with market regulator SEBI on April 23. The publication further stated that on Thursday, the company’s internal review of the draft and other processes was completed.

In all streets, Zomato’s Initial Public Offering is much anticipated and it will trigger the listing of many startups of India. Zomato had converted itself from a private company to a public one by amending its Memorandum of Association and renaming itself Zomato Limited. It said that the move to convert itself into a public limited company was necessary to file IPO papers with SEBI.

According to a report published in The Hindu, SEBI has tightened rules for provisional debt rating. Credit Rating Agency (CRA) is going to check the pendency of compliance. Market regulator SEBI has come out with all new framework to strengthen policies on Provisional Rating Agency. Compliance cost refers to all the regulations that the industry pays to adhere to industry regulations. SEBI has stated that under the new framework, all provisional ratings, long term or short term, for debt instruments, need to be prefixed as ‘Provsional’, before rating symbol in all its communications. These communications include letters, press release and rating rationale.

“In no case shall a rating, including provisional rating, be assigned by a credit rating agency for an issuer or client evaluating strategic decisions such as funding mix for a project, acquisition, debt restructuring, scenario-analysis in loan refinancing,” SEBI said.

PagarBook raises USD15 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital

Divya Joyce — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:19:32 +0000

PagarBook, a staff management solutions provider on Thursday said it has raised USD 15 million (about Rs 110 crore) in funding led by Sequoia Capital, which also saw participation from India Quotient in funds from Series A round, which will be used in further product development and to drive customer acquisition.

The company also plans to add financial products such as payments and credit for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and their employees on the platform over the coming year, it added.

Previously, PagarBook had raised a seed round from India Quotient and Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program Surge.

Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia India said in the last six months, PagarBook has grown over 100x and now tracks attendance and processes payroll for millions of Indians.

PagarBook, which was founded by Adarsh Kumar, Arya Adarsha Gautam and Rupesh Kumar Mishra in December 2019, helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs) save time on managing and maintaining attendance records, speeding up payment cycles, reducing disputes, eliminating human errors in wage calculation, payment of salaries and various other aspects of human resource management through an easy-to-use workforce management app.

PagarBook currently has over 5 million SMEs registered on the platform. The app is available in 11 Indian languages. In the past seven months, the app has gone from a few thousand to more than 5 million downloads on the Play Store.

‘India’s 60 million SMEs and its 400 million large workforce contribute roughly 30 percent of India’s GDP, but still lack a verified financial and professional footprint in any organized technology ecosystem. As a result, they are left out of the mainstream financial ecosystem,’ Rupesh Kumar Mishra, co-founder of PagarBook, said.

PagarBook addresses this massive gap with its digital human capital platform for SMEs.

‘We are currently managing around 2 percent of India’s SME workforce and by the end of the calendar year 2021, we aim to grow 5x and take this figure to 10 percent,’ Mishra said.

Wakefit secures capital of Rs 185 crore from Verlinvest, Sequoia India

Shalmali Bhagwat — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 07:58:57 +0000

Online mattress retailer Wakefit has secured a capital of Rs 185 crore in its Series B round of funding from Belgian investor Verlinvest and existing backer Sequoia Capital India, in the backdrop of the booming digital-first brands in India. Wakefit was pegged at about Rs 1900 crore, a jump of nearly 10 times from when Sequoia first invested Rs 70 crore valuing it at Rs 210 crore in 2018.

Founded by Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda told Moneycontrol, Wakefit has also ventured in manufacturing and selling furniture over the past year- a category that already accounts for 20% of its overall revenue. Despite the Coronavirus lockdown which led to months of zero revenue, Wakefit will more than double its revenue year-on-year to Rs 425-450 crore for FY21 compared to Rs 200 crore for FY20, he pointed out.

Direct-to-consumer brands such as Wakefit have been one of the biggest stories in startups the last year or so, in the backdrop of the upward graph observed in internet usage, e-commerce and demand beyond the top 8 cities. During the festive season this year, over 40% of Wakefit’s revenue was beyond the top 8 cities, compared to 30% in February.

As part of the round, Verlinvest also purchased Rs 15 crore of ESOPs from early employees, offering these employees a rare financial windfall. “The past year has been an exceptional one for us, with customer demand evolving and growing in a completely upturned lifestyle. In order to create rapid growth opportunities in this landscape, we raised Series B funding to bolster key functions such as R&D, logistics, operations, technology and marketing,” said Ramalingegowda.

New investor Verlinvest was conceived in 1995 as a family-owned business by the founding families of beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, with over a billion dollars in assets under management. Its Indian portfolio includes online learning firm Byju’s, Sula Vineyards and cosmetics brand Purplle, among others. “The home solutions segment in India is largely unorganized with a broken customer experience thereby providing an immense potential for disruption. Current tailwinds have created a systemic shift towards online shopping which offers potential for a digital first player like Wakefit.co to organize the market,” said Manvitha Janagam, Investment Professional, Verlinvest, in a statement.

Indian D2C brands have raised about $1.5 billion in capital, with valuations of $12-15 billion in total, and include one unicorn — eyewear retailer Lenskart — so far.

LambdaTest secures USD 6 million in funding round led by Sequoia Capital

Divya Joyce — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 09:12:30 +0000

Sequoia Capital, a rapid scale-up programme for startups in Southeast Asia and India led a funding round where cloud-based browser testing platform LambdaTest secured USD 6 million (Rs 44.2 crore) on Wednesday. Blume Ventures, Entrée Capital, and Leo Capital also participated in the round, along with Gokul Rajaram and Ramakant Sharma, Press Trust of India reported.

The funding advances LambdaTest’s commitment to scaling its ecosystem and building next-generation cloud infrastructure for the developer and tester community.

LambdaTest has seen 8-10 percent month-on-month growth in terms of sign-ups, customers, website visits, and revenue, and has more than 350,000 users from 132 countries using the platform.

Founded in 2017 by Asad Khan and Jay Singh, LambdaTest is a testing infrastructure company that allows developers to seamlessly test their websites and apps on any browser or operating system environment.

“Our ultimate goal is to bring the whole testing ecosystem to the cloud platform, where all testing processes are done in a seamlessly integrated infrastructure that is easy to scale up and helps for easy application, debugging, and ultimately helping to bring out the best quality products in the shortest amount of time,” LambdaTest co-founder and CEO Asad Khan said.

Since its launch, LambdaTest has been used to perform more than 12 million tests by its 350,000 users, including companies like Xerox, Cisco, Deloitte, Media.net, Coca Cola, Trepp, SurveyMonkey, Capgemini, HBR, Dashlane, and Zoho.

This round of funding validates the company’s efforts and strengthens its commitment to building next-generation cloud infrastructure for the developer and tester community, he added.

CRED raises $80 million, becomes the newest unicorn in market

Divya Joyce — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 05:27:06 +0000

Credit card repayment app CRED is set to become the newest unicorn in the market, with a valuation of over a billion dollars in the Indian start-up scene. DST Global and others have participated in its $80 million funding round including the existing investor’s Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Hillhouse Capital, and Ribbit Capital.

With this funding round, Freecharge co-founder Kunal Shah’s second venture is now valued at $800 million.

Yuri Milner-led DST Global is also an investor in companies like Flipkart, Facebook, Spotify, Udaan, and Ola, among others.

Apoletto Asia—the personal investment vehicle of Milner of DST Global is already an investor in CRED from its seed-funding round in late 2018.

After a quiet 2019 in India, DST Global is actively looking for deals. The firm has invested in online education firm Byju’s and used car online marketplace Cars24, this year. BYJU’S, Cars24 and CRED all count Sequoia Capital as an investor.

CRED started as an invite-only app which exclusivity led to its initial success. The app is now open for all those who have credit scores of over 750. In India, a customer’s credit score, also known as CIBIL score, is calculated out of 900.

CRED is an app beneficial for customers with multiple credit cards. It tracks credit card due dates and alerts customers of their upcoming payment dates. One can clear their credit card dues on CRED using UPI and other payment options. Less than 60 million people in India have credit cards making the category lucrative for advertisers and businesses chasing consumer wallets.

CRED, by trying to get these people on its platform, offers a ready market for businesses to target these high-spenders.

In lieu, CRED offers customers points that can be redeemed on its platform itself with participating businesses. For example, one can part pay a holiday, electronic items, services, food, beverages and grooming products using Cred points.

CRED has been aggressive in its marketing over the past few months. The startup spent and won right to official sponsorship of the recently concluded Indian Premier League held in the Middle East.

“Investors are betting Kunal knows this industry better than anyone and can corner it quickly enough. They (CRED) can figure out a sizable revenue model as they go along,” said a second person aware of negotiations.

Surge funding: Edu-tech platform, Kyt secures capital of USD 2.5 million

Shalmali Bhagwat — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 09:07:42 +0000

Edu-tech platform Kyt on Monday said it has managed to secure capital of USD 2.5 million (about Rs 18.5 crore) in funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge to further branch its online-first global academy for extracurricular learning.

Founded in June this year, Kyt works with technology to provide online-only live lessons to children from 5 to 15 years old. With head offices in India and Singapore, Kyt was founded by husband-wife duo Bhavik Rathod (former Uber India executive) and Tripti Ahuja. To date, over 1,000 students have associated with Kyt, and the platform has recruited more than 20 teachers.

The company plans to increase its teacher base to 500 over the next 12 months and include more subject courses, including chess, various musical instruments, public speaking, creative writing, and how to be a content creator, a statement said.

Kyt acts as the medium of contact between students and global educators, including Indian Chess Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, Philippines’ hip-hop legend Ruel Varindani and celebrity yoga instructor Sabrina Merchant.

“After speaking to several parents, we realised that there is a much larger need to provide high-quality courses that focus on the holistic and all-round development of the child, beyond just academics. With a strong team of curriculum designers, pedagogy experts and education consultants, we embarked on this vision to build an online-first, global academy for extracurricular learning for kids,” Kyt co-founder and CEO Bhavik Rathod said.

The future of education is a mix of online and offline learning, and the market size for primary and secondary extracurricular learning is pegged at USD 10 billion in India alone, and around USD 200 billion globally, Rathod added.

“While most learnings used to happen in physical spaces, there will be rapid adoption of online learning even beyond COVID-19, as these well-structured curriculums will build strong global communities, encouraging children to remain engaged over time,” he added.

Kyt is part of the group of companies united by Surge, a bi-annual rapid scale-up programme run by Sequoia Capital India for startups across Southeast Asia and India.

NBFC Eduvanz raises $5 million from Sequoia Capital in Series A round

Chittesh Dalmia — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 07:30:19 +0000

Mumbai based NBFC Eduvanz, which specialises in education financing and FinTech, has raised $5 million in a series A round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India.

The funding round also saw participation from Unitus Capital which is an existing investor in the company. The newly infused capital will be used by the non-banking financial company (NBFC) to expand its presence in smaller towns, while also improving collection efficiencies and lending cycle management, the company said in a statement.

“The funds will be utilised towards creating a seamless borrower experience with secure, scalable, innovative, and agile technologies to support the lending cycle,” as per the statement. “This includes new credit products, AI-based risk management, and easier collections to support borrowers through their lending journey.”

The Mumbai-based fintech lender claims to have served over 10,000 borrowers since its inception in 2016. It further aims to disburse Rs 400-500 crore worth of loans over the next two years. The financier specialises in giving educational loans in tie-up with educational institutes through end-to-end digital channels.

“By combining innovative student-centric loan solutions, robust risk-assessment with cutting edge digital lending technology, Eduvanz is enabling higher enrolment for learners across colleges, universities, certification partners, institutes, and schools,” said Varun Chopra, CEO, Eduvanz, who along with Raheel Shah founded the company in 2016.

The company’s focus includes its credit scoring mechanism which helps it underwrite risks based on the “future employability” of the borrower.

“Eduvanz is catering to this by building a differentiated lending business with exceptional credit quality,” said Ashish Agarwal, Principal, Sequoia Capital. “Their future employability-based underwriting approach will make education and skilling more accessible to accelerate a diverse range of careers,” Agrawal said.