Exclusive: Sequoia India loses senior executive

Sequoia Capital, the storied Silicon Valley investor and India’s largest venture capital fund by far, has lost a senior executive.

Anjana Sasidharan, Principal at Sequoia India, has stepped down from the firm, said two people aware of the matter, at a time when Sequoia has just raised $1.35 billion to deploy in India and Southeast Asia over the next two years.

Sasidharan informed her colleagues of her decision nearly six months back, generally the minimum time period to finalize exits for senior executives at venture firms, the people said, requesting anonymity.

At venture capital firms, Principals are the second in seniority after managing directors/partners, and hold decision making power, make investments and are part of the fund-raising process internally as well.

Sasidharan has spearheaded healthcare and biotechnology investments for Sequoia and made it her focus area. She sits on the boards of nearly a dozen healthcare technology startups, some her own investments, and some legacy investments of Sequoia made by other MDs.

Her recent deals include Qure.ai, which provides AI algorithms for medical imaging and Biofourmis- which runs a digital therapeutics platform. She is also on the boards of Curatio Healthcare, Koye Pharma, La Renon Healthcare and Medgenome, among others.

Sasidharan’s exit is also important at a time when, in the middle of a pandemic, Sequoia has raised $1.35 billion, and is doubling down on its successful bets

Her decision to leave also had to be communicated to Sequoia’ limited partners- such as pension funds and endowments, who give Sequoia money to invest.

VC firms have an investment life cycle- from the first investment to an exit- of five to 12 years, during which time senior investors generally do not quit the firm.

According to two people aware of conversations, while Sasidharan specialised in early stage biotechnology startups, this is still a new sector in India where large companies have not been built. Hence, making this sector an investment priority was challenging for Sequoia, which mostly focuses on consumer internet.

Sequoia declined to comment while Sasidharan did not respond to a query seeking comment.

Sasidharan joined Sequoia as an Associate in 2011. She was promoted to Vice President in 2012, and Principal in 2015. Principals generally take three-four years to become a partner.

She was on track for partnership, but the firm could not give her a timeline on the same, sources said.

“You won’t leave, possibly the most coveted job in investing, unless you clearly see something better elsewhere, or unless there is a serious difference in opinion or vision with seniors in the firm,” said a person aware of the discussions, who did not want to be named.

Sequoia India currently has seven managing directors. Shailendra Singh, Mohit Bhatnagar, GV Ravishankar, Shailesh Lakhani, and Abheek Anand look at investments in India and Southeast Asia, while Rajan Anandan looks at Surge, Sequoia’s accelerator program for early stage startups. Sequoia also hired Amit Jain, who was earlier the Asia Pacific head for ride hailing firm Uber, in September last year.

Sasidharan has not decided her next career move yet but will possibly continue early stage biotech investing elsewhere.

With Sasidharan leaving, Sequoia will redistribute her board seats in portfolio companies among other investors, as is generally the norm. When an investor leaves, firms generally also prefer promoting from within

Sequoia India, however, is not new to senior level management churn. In 2017 and 2018, three former MDs- VT Bharadwaj, Gautam Mago and Abhay Pandey, left the firm to set up their own fund, A91 Partners. This split happened because Sequoia has technology investing as its core focus globally, but the 3 partners wanted to have a dedicated fund to consumer-focused startups- which may not necessarily be tech-led.

Before that, in 2011, four founding MDs of Sequoia India- Sandeep Singhal, Sumir Chadha, KP Balaraj and SK Jain went back to their original firm- Westbridge Capital, to focus on public market investing.