Sequoia Raises $10 Billion While Reversing Expansion Plans
Sequoia narrows its operating model
Sequoia Capital says it has raised roughly $10 billion in new funds while making a sweeping set of organisational changes. The venture firm is closing its London office, ending its Arc batch accelerator and Scouts programme, merging its early-stage and growth teams, flattening its partnership and discontinuing its Monday partner meeting.
The changes were set out in a memo titled The Sequoia of Tomorrow. Sequoia described them as a return to high-conviction, highly selective venture investing after an approximately 20-year expansionary period that created multiple businesses across multiple geographies.
That expansion, the firm said, also created hierarchy. Sequoia now intends to put more energy behind fewer people and activities, while simplifying both its operating and investing teams. It has also simplified the structure associated with the Sequoia Capital Fund.
Arc and Scouts are being sunset
Two of the discontinued programmes had been direct routes to very early founders. Scouts, launched around 2009, gave small cheques to founders and operators who could invest on Sequoia's behalf. The model helped the firm gain exposure to companies through people close to emerging entrepreneurs.
Arc, launched in March 2022, was Sequoia's batch accelerator for pre-seed and seed companies. It ran seven-week cohorts several times a year, with admitted companies receiving between $500,000 and $1 million upfront. Sequoia said both Arc and Scouts are being sunset as it concentrates support on a narrower set of investments.
The firm also said there will no longer be separate “Early & Growth” approaches. Instead, it will operate as a single Sequoia team under a shared mission, a structure it says should make the transition between company stages more seamless for founders.
London closure reinforces Bay Area focus
Sequoia opened its London office in 2020 and is now closing it, with several people leaving the firm. The memo said the decision was not a reflection on the London team, but that Sequoia no longer sees a need for a local presence. It said Europe will continue producing outlier founders and companies, which it believes it can support from its Bay Area base.
Luciana Lixandru, whom Sequoia hired from Accel in 2020 as its first Europe-based partner, said she was offered a move to San Francisco and declined. She remains a partner, will retain her board seats and plans to invest personally in European founders. The closure follows other pullbacks in the market, including Andreessen Horowitz's London closure last year and Coatue's retreat in 2024.
A flatter partnership and a new operating rhythm
Sequoia says seven general partners now own and operate the organisation: Alfred Lin, Pat Grady, Andrew Reed, Shaun Maguire, Konstantine Buhler, Sonya Huang and David Cahn. Lin and Grady are the firm's co-stewards. Carl Eschenbach returned as a full-time partner in March, while Doug Leone has also been brought back into a more active role.
The firm is ending the regular Monday partner-meeting cycle on the basis that founders operate continuously and investors should adapt to founders' processes. Sequoia acknowledged that the changes involve difficult departures and uncertainty, but said its objective is quality rather than scale. For businesses working with investors or redesigning their own teams, the practical implication is to assess whether every programme, location and decision process still strengthens the core mission.