Peak XV, the venture firm formerly known as India and Southeast Asia arm of Sequoia, didn’t disclose the size of the new fund.
The new fund, called Peak XV Anchor Fund, will be funded by an internal balance sheet, the source said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private.
The fund will enable Peak XV to “create a global network for learning and collaboration,” the venture firm said, according to the LP source.
The fund will enable Peak XV Partners to have broader skin in the game with its own fund and also explore investment in newer areas, the source said.
With Peak XV Anchor Fund, the venture firm plans to partner with other “managers across regions, strategies and sectors.”Peak XV didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
BlackRock has yet again cut the value of its holding in Byju’s, slashing the implied valuation of the Indian startup to $1 billion from $22 billion in early 2022, according to disclosures made by the asset manager.
At the end of October last year, BlackRock said it valued Byju’s shares at about $209.6 apiece, down from the peak of $4,660 in 2022.
This isn’t the first time BlackRock has cut the worth of its holding in Byju’s — and BlackRock isn’t the only investor that has severely downgraded how they value Byju’s, but the new adjustment is by far the most drastic.
Prosus, which owns about 9% in Byju’s, said late last year that it valued Byju’s at “sub $3 billion.” At $22 billion, Byju’s ranked as India’s most valuable startup.
The valuation markdown is a stunning reversal in fortune for Byju’s, once the poster child of the Indian startup ecosystem.
SentinelOne’s deal to acquire PingSafe valued the Peak XV-backed young startup at over $100 million, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, in one of the strongest and fastest deals emerging from India.
The New York Stock Exchange-listed AI security firm disclosed the cash and equity deal last week, but didn’t reveal the financial terms.
Founded in 2021, PingSafe is a relatively new and small security company with <100 employees and ~50+ customers, mostly in India.
The British bank also estimated the size of the deal to be about $100 million.
PingSafe is “among the fastest ‘seed to significant exits’ Indian ecosystem has ever seen,” Rajan Anandan, who leads Surge at Peak XV, tweeted last week.
Indian financial services startup MobiKwik seeks to raise about $84.2 million through issue of new shares in an initial public offering in the home market, it said in a draft prospectus filed with the local markets regulator Friday.
This is the second time MobiKwik has filed the paperwork for an IPO.
It does plan to raise about $16 million in a pre-IPO round, it said.
SBI Capital and DAM Capital are the lead book running managers for the IPO process, the prospectus said.
MobiKwik is the latest Indian startup that is looking to go public this year.
