Sequoia flirts with public policy

Never before has a venture fund dabbled in public policy, a function you’d associate with companies having constant run-ins with the government. So, why now?

Ashish K. Mishra

Mumbai

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Last week, Sequoia Capital India, the local arm of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, made an announcement which sort of flew under the radar. The firm said that it has hired three people to head three new functions: technology, marketing and public policy.

Ajey Gore, the former group chief technology officer of Jakarta-based ride-hailing company Gojek, will head the technology vertical and help Sequoia’s portfolio companies across India and Southeast Asia with engineering, product and design. Gayatri Vasudev Yadav, the former chief marketing officer of broadcaster Star India, will lead marketing for the fund and help portfolio companies with marketing and brand building. And lastly, Shweta Rajpal Kohli, the former Uber India and Salesforce executive, will head public policy for the fund.

The need for both technology and marketing leaders can be easily explained.

In the normal course of business, and the way venture capital firms have

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