Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm.[1] The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California and mainly focuses on the technology industry.[2] It has backed companies that now control $1.4 trillion of combined stock market value.[3] Sequoia manages multiple investment funds including funds specific to India & Southeast Asia,[4] Israel,[5] and China.[6] The firm has offices in Menlo Park, Singapore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, London and Tel Aviv.[7]

Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC
TypePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1972 (1972)
FounderDon Valentine
Headquarters
Menlo Park, California
,
U.S.
Area served
United States, Southeast Asia, India, China, Israel
Key people
Michael Moritz
Douglas Leone
Jim Goetz
Roelof Botha
ProductsInvestments
Websitesequoiacap.com

History

Sequoia was founded by Don Valentine in 1972[8] in Menlo Park, California. In the mid-1990s, Valentine gave control of the company to Doug Leone and Michael Moritz.[3] In 1999, Sequoia expanded its operations to Israel.[9] Sequoia Capital China was established in 2005 as an affiliate to the U.S. firm.[10] The company is led by Neil Shen. In 2006, Sequoia Capital acquired Westbridge Capital Partners, an Indian venture capital firm. It later was renamed Sequoia Capital India.[11] CB Insights recognized Sequoia Capital as the number one venture capital firm in 2013.[12] The U.S. firm had 11 partners as of 2016.[13]

In 2015, Sequoia chairman Michael Moritz was questioned about Sequoia's lack of any women investing partners. Moritz argued that there were few qualified female candidates, because American women "tend to elect not to study the sciences when they’re 11 or 12", and said that Sequoia would not "lower our standards" to hire women.[14] Following criticism of Moritz's comments, in 2016 Sequoia hired Jess Lee as the first female investing partner in the firm's 44-year history.[15]

In 2020, Sequoia set-up its first European office in London, UK and hired Luciana Lixandru to lead it.[16]

Investments

Sequoia invests in both public and private companies. It specializes in incubation, seed stage, startup stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies.[17]

Sequoia Capital has invested in over 1000 companies since 1972, including Apple, Google, Oracle, Nvidia, GitHub, PayPal, LinkedIn, Stripe, Bird,[18] YouTube, Instagram, Yahoo!, PicsArt, Klarna and WhatsApp.[19] The combined current public market value for these companies is over $1.4 trillion, equivalent to 22 percent of Nasdaq.[3] Its portfolio is mainly in financial services, healthcare, outsourcing, and technology.[17] As of 2017, they have exited in 68 initial public offerings and 203 acquisitions.[20]

On March 5, 2020, Sequoia Capital sent a notice to its portfolio companies saying, "We suggest you question every assumption about your business," and calling coronavirus "the black swan of 2020",[21] predicting that the global economy could be restrained by the virus.[22] That came after the stock market dropped and concerns arose about a possible economic recession.[23] The memo echoes a presentation prepared by the firm for its portfolio companies called "R.I.P. Good Times"[24] about how to prepare for the 2008 financial crisis.[25]

In March 2020, Sequoia Capital announced that it is opening a fundraiser for about US$7bn for its latest set of venture capital funds, testing investor appetite for technology start-ups in the US and south-east Asia as a response to the coronavirus market damage. The fundraiser is set to end as soon as July.[26]

See also

References
  1. Mazel tov, Israeli startups: Sequoia Capital raise $200M to fund you, Meghan Kelly, August 23, 2012, Venture Beat, retrieved May 12, 2016
  2. Secretive, Sprawling Network of ‘Scouts’ Spreads Money Through Silicon Valley, Rolfe Winkler, November 12, 2015, Wall Street Journal, retrieved May 12, 2016
  3. "Inside Sequoia Capital: Silicon Valley's Innovation Factory". Forbes. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  4. Sequoia wraps up new $695M fund for India and Southeast Asia, Jon Russell, TechCrunch, retrieved May 25, 2020
  5. Sequoia Capital raises more than $1 billion for startups, Dan Primack, August 15, 2013, Fortune, retrieved May 12, 2016
  6. Sequoia's Neil Shen Tops Forbes China Ranking Of Best Venture Capital Investors, Russell Flannery, January 15, 2014, Forbes, retrieved May 12, 2016
  7. Sequoia Capital Locations, Sequoia Capital, retrieved May 25, 2020
  8. With WhatsApp deal, Sequoia Capital burnishes reputation, Sarah McBride, February 21, 2014, Reuters, retrieved May 12, 2016
  9. Israel's Most Important Source of Capital: California, Darwin Bond-Graham, August 20, 2014, CounterPunch.org, retrieved May 9, 2016
  10. How Neil Shen Built A Winner At Sequoia Capital China, April 2, 2014, Alex Konrad, Forbes, retrieved March 30, 2016
  11. "How Sequoia Capital India became Asia's most prolific venture capital firm". Quartz. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  12. "The Top 100 Venture Capital Partners & Firms l CB Insights". CB Insights Research. 2019-03-31. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  13. McBride, Sarah; Chapman, Lizette (October 20, 2016). "Sequoia Capital Hires Yahoo's Jess Lee as First Woman U.S. Investing Partner". Bloomberg. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  14. Kulwin, Noah (December 3, 2015). "Venerated VC Michael Moritz Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot on Question About Hiring Women". Recode.
  15. Del Rey, Jason (October 20, 2016). "Sequoia Capital has hired Polyvore's Jess Lee as its first woman investment partner". Recode.
  16. Boland, Hannah (2020-08-06). "Silicon Valley's Sequoia searching for West End office". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  17. "Sequoia Capital website". September 4, 2013.
  18. Griswold, Alison. "Electric scooter company Bird raises $275 million, with a new focus on profitability". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  19. "Inside Sequoia Capital: Silicon Valley's Innovation Factory". George Anders.
  20. "Unicorn Outcomes: Sequoia Capital Sees The Most $1B+ Exits And Tends To Get In Early". CB Insights Research. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  21. Novet, Jordan (2020-03-05). "Venture firm Sequoia is sounding the alarm about the economy again as coronavirus spreads". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  22. "Highlights From Sequoia Capital's Letter To Founders And CEOs". Invezz. 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  23. Schleifer, Theodore (2020-03-05). "Silicon Valley's top investing firm has a stark message on coronavirus: Prepare for the worst". Vox. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  24. "R.I.P. Good Times". Sequoia Capital. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  25. "Sequoia Capital's 56 Slide Presentation Of Doom". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  26. "Sequoia seeks $7bn to invest in US and Asian start-ups". Financial Times. 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
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