World-class firms need world-class governance, says Sequoia India MD

VC firms, in general, are focused on creating world-class companies but to be a world-class company, one needs to have world-class governance, said Rajan Anandan, MD of Sequoia Capital India. 

“What we are seeing in India in the past 12-15 months are a few situations of wilful frauds. When you see wilful fraud, you have to take action to investigate it. ... Start-ups from a very early stage in their journey should be aware of the governance issues,” said Anandan at the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) Conclave 2023 in Mumbai.

His remarks come at a time when a few firms in which Sequoia has invested are embroiled in governance issues. The latest case is of GoMechanic, where the founders confessed to wrongdoings. Earlier, governance issues cropped up at Singapore-based Zilingo, BharatPe, and Trell.

Anandan also reiterated that if one has decided to do fraud then even the Big four audit firms can also not do much.

"When you have serious governance lapses, who are investigated and concluded to be frauds, those are super serious. Willful fraudsters will have their ways to hide things from Big 4 auditors. It’s very difficult to catch them. You need to double down on diligence,” he said.