Sequoia India leads funding round for Smartkarma

Smartkarma, Asia's largest provider of independent investment research, has closed a Series B round of financing led by Sequoia India, which brings the company's total funding to USD 21 million.
Existing investors, including Wavemaker Partners, Jungle Ventures and Spring Seeds, joined the funding round.
Smartkarma is disrupting the traditional model of investment research, which has long been dominated by investment banks, it said in a statement.
Its platform connects investment managers with a large community of experts and analysts, and a wealth of independent research.
The company has seen rapid adoption since the launch of its platform in 2016.
Over 400 independent analysts covering more than 2,400 companies across 15 Asian markets now contribute to Smartkarmas cloud-based platform.

Over 150 leading institutional asset managers have subscribed, including sovereign wealth funds, global asset managers, hedge funds, boutiques and family offices, worldwide.

The top 10 clients alone have over USD 13.5 trillion under management.
The company was founded in Singapore in 2014 by Raghav Kapoor, Jon Foster and Lee Mitchell, who together have over 35 years' experience in equity research, marketing and sales.
Kapoor and Foster were also co-founders of Aviate Research, which was acquired in 2010 by Religare Capital Markets.