Sequoia announces Spark 02 fellowship for 12 female startup founders from India and SEA

The Sequoia Spark fellowship programme aims to increase the number of female startup founders in the region.

Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia Southeast Asia have launched the second cohort of the Sequoia Spark Fellowship, a $100,000 equity-free grant and mentorship programme to support women entrepreneurs.

Spark 02 comprises 12 female founders from across sectors and industries like climate tech, healthtech, SaaS, B2B, web3, consumer internet, and D2C.

“The Sequoia Spark fellowship programme is born out of the desire and commitment to increase the number of female founders in the region and play a role in enabling the early stages of their journey, especially when access is such a challenge,” said Sakshi Chopra, MD, Sequoia India.

Spark 01 was a cohort of 15 companies and 20 female founders.
As of December 2022, 10 of 15 startups have raised their seed and Series A rounds from venture capital firms and angels across the region, and one has been acquired by Wipro, totalling $51 million of capital post-Spark, the venture capital firm said in a media statement on January 18.

Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia Southeast Asia’s rapid scale-up programme Surge also launched its seventh cohort in August last year, where it invested in 15 early-stage Indian and Southeast Asian startups with total funding of $41 million.
The 12 startup founders who are part of the Spark 02 comprises Saumya Misra, the founder of Avataar; Ketaki Ogale, the co-founder of BHyve; Twinkle Uppal, founder of Hoop; Akriti Gupta, founder of Jollee; Kriti Arora, founder of Mantys; Eisha Srivastava, co-founder of Plodo; Nikita Dresswala, founder of Teleport; Neha Jain, founder of Zerocircle; Fannie Lin, co-founder of Ailiverse; Natalia Rialucky Marsudi, founder of Fairatmos; Inez Wihardjo, founder of Gigit.ai and Carina Lukito, founder of Little Joy.

As per Sequoia, the Spark programme has been designed to help female founders lay the foundations of an enduring company. Along with a rigorous curriculum, the founders have each been matched to a seasoned startup founder from Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s portfolio for one-on-one mentorship for the duration of the programme.

“Anshuman Singh of Scaler, Ashwini Asokan of Mad Street Den, Chaitanya Ramalingegowda of Wakefit, Hande Cilingir of Insider, Siu Rui of Carousell, and Yamini Bhat of Vymo amongst others will offer mentorship trainings,” the statement said.

The mentorship will be a critical wedge in building a strong product and go-to-market roadmap which, in turn, will help mobilise their first rounds of fundraising.

Spark 02 founders will also have access to select Surge sessions and get mentorship from Sequoia India and Southeast Asia portfolio specialists across hiring, product, legal, finance, product, technology, and marketing.