Southeast Asia and India’s markets have exhibited a tremendous capacity to adapt to the “COVID new normal”.
“The part that I think was a very interesting, positive surprise for us was just how quickly the capital markets and the digital world adapted to this new normal,” shared Sequoia Capital managing director Abheek Anand during a fireside chat at DealStreetAsia’s Asia PE-VC Summit 2020.
Well capitalised investors are already flocking to digital-first sectors which are quickly discovering the need to digitise en masse with great urgency. “There is a lot of liquidity in our markets,” shared Anand. “We’ve also been positively surprised by how much investor interest there is for the highest quality companies.”
It is also influencing deal flow into Sequoia Surge, a 15-week seed-stage programme aimed at “supercharging” startups in Southeast Asia and India. According to Rajan Anandan, managing director at Surge and Sequoia Capital India, founders are already thinking much “bigger” these days. Founders don’t want to just build regional businesses. They want to build global ones.
Watch the video where the duo shares their perspectives on Building Enduring Companies – Starting with a Viable Economic Engine.
