Private Equity

Incubation/Acceleration

15 women-led cos in Sequoia Spark's 1st cohort

Economic Times  

Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has picked up its first cohort of 15 women-led companies as part of its Sequoia Spark Fellowship programme. The USD 1,00,000 equity-free grant is given to women entrepreneurs in India and Southeast Asia. It will offer mentorship to 15 women-led startups and capital to cover some of the early costs of starting up. These startups, seven from India, seven from Southeast Asia and one from the Middle East are led by 20 women founders - building products across fintech, ed-tech, Software as a Service, and consumer internet sectors. Startups from India include The Nestery, a retailer for curated parenting and childcare products; Linecraft AI, an industrial Internet of Things startup; Loop Panel, which helps convert customer conversations into actionable insights; Jify, which aims to empower employees with complete flexibility and access to their earnings in real-time; Findeed, which enables access to financial services for working class Indians; Early Steps, which offers live online classes; and Nume Crypto, a startup focused on making crypto transactions simple and economical.