Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital is a California-based venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California that was founded in 1972 by Donald Valentine. It has an aggregated public market value of over $3.3 trillion, 1244 investments, 251 exits, and 22 investment funds with a total of 15.3 billion in raised capital (as of July 2019). Sequoia Capital has offices operating in the United States, Israel, China, and India.

The company aims to invest early in companies that it deems to be "dentmakers" with the intention to aid with growing them. It invests in seed funds and helps the start-ups with the initial stages of growing a business, such as hiring engineers, product development, strategy, and introducing early customers.

It also partners with established companies that are looking for step-function growth.Sequoia Capital utilizes a scout program in which individuals are financially backed by the company and are expected to invest in early-stage start-ups so that Sequoia Capital can have an advantage when larger funding rounds occur.There are several hundred scouts working for the company, and the scouts have the benefit of keeping a portion of the profits from the companies in which they invest Sequoia Capital's finances.

Donald Valentine founded Sequoia Capital in 1972. The participated in Apple's initial public offering in 1980, and made early investments of other companies that would later provide great returns for the company such as Oracle, Cisco, Yahoo, Google, and LinkedIn. Their investment success lead them to having a $1.4 trillion combined stock market value in 2014, which was equivalent to 22% of the NASDAQ at the time. In 2014, 9 investment partners (working with Sequoia Capital made it onto the 2014 Forbes Midas List recognizing the worlds top 100 technology investors; more than any other venture capital firm in the world. The 9 Sequoia Capital partners making the 2014 Midas List were: James Goetz (#1), Doug Leone (#6), Michael Moritz (#13), Alfred Lin (#26), Roelof Botha (#29), Neil Nanpeng Shen (#33), Michael Goguen (#44), Bryan Schreier (#72), and Kui Zhou (#81).

In the United States, Sequoia-backed companies account for more than 20% of NASDAQ's total value. Industries in which the company invests include energy, finance, enterprise, healthcare, internet, technology, and mobile. Sequoia Capital also invests money on behalf of non-profits and schools, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company also has branches in various parts of the world, including China, India, and Israel. It has had three global growth funds and the one in 2018 had a five year investment horizon. The minimum investment to join a global growth fund is $250 million.

Sequoia Capital's branch in the United States primarily makes investments primarily in software, internet, mobile, enterprise, information technology, and e-commerce. They have raised approximately 15.3 billion in funding held in 22 (as of July 2019) different funds since their founding in 1972.

The company branch in China was founded in September 2005 and its managing partner is Neil Shen. Sequoia Capital China has 31 different funds with $3 billion in total capital, 398 investments, and 51 exits (as of July 2019). The company invests in industries such as logistics, drones, biotechnology, autonomous driving, and bike-sharing. It also invests globally in eight countries outside of China. Sequoia Capital China has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and other cities throughout China.

Sequoia Capital India was founded in 2000, with a Southeast Asia branch following in 2012. Its managing director is Abheek Anand, who manages along with multiple other directors. This branch of the company focuses on technology, consumer, and healthcare start-ups. The branch has made 314 investments and has made 31 exits. It focuses on investments that are connected to Internet users as India has one of the highest amount of users in the world and that number is continuously growing.

This subsidiary of the company was founded by Haim Sadger in 1999. The Israel branch of Sequoia Capital has made 151 investments, and 32 exits. The branch invests primarily in software and enterprise software with a focus on information technology infrastructure and network security.

The following table provides information regarding venture funds of Sequoia Capital: