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:
Venture funds of Sequoia Capital
S Capital Fund I
$94 milllion
March 16, 2018
Sequoia Capital China Growth Fund V
Undisclosed
June 19, 2018
Sequoia Capital China Seed Fund I
Undisclosed
June 19, 2018
Sequoia Capital China Venture Fund VII
Undisclosed
June 19, 2018
Sequoia Capital China Venture VI Principals Fund
$52.2 million
October 2, 2017
Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund III
$6 billion
June 25, 2018
Sequoia Capital India IV
$850 million
June 1, 2017
Sequoia Capital India VI
Undisclosed
June 19, 2018
Sequoia Capital U.S. Growth Fund VIII
Undisclosed
June 19, 2018
Sequoia Capital U.S. Scout Seed Fund III
Undisclosed
November 13, 2017
Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Fund XVI
Undisclosed
June 19, 2018
Sequoia India and Southeast Asia Fund
$695 million
August 21, 2018
Sequoia Scout III
$180 million
January 16, 2018
Timeline
Funded Companies
YouTube is a video-sharing service owned by Google founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Jawed Karim, and Chad Hurley.
Robinhood is a Palo Alto, California-based financial technology company founded in 2013. They offer free stock and equity trading and commission-free crypto-trading.
Instagram is a Menlo Park based photo-sharing social media platform.
Dropbox is a file sharing and productivity startup created by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007.
UiPath is a software company designing and developing robotic process automation software.
Fireeye, inc. is a Milpitas, California-based publicly listed network security company.
A technology company that has developed solutions for making and receiving payments. It was founded in 2009 and is located in San Francisco, California.
Nubank is a financial technology company based in Brazil issuing, administrating, processing and transfering payments related to post-paid credit cards and equity investments.
Klarna is a financial technology company providing e-commerce payment solutions for merchants and shoppers.
Physna is a Cincinnati-based 3D modelling software company offering 3D models understandable by software applications for manufacturing, engineering, product design, 3D printing, augmented reality and virtual reality applications.
Personetics' self-driving finance platform for banks to anticipate a customer's personalized banking needs through artificial intelligence.
Stripe is a financial technology company providing software that allows businesses and individuals to make and receive online payments.
Modern Meadow is a biotechnology company using cellular agriculture and biofabrication to manufacture bioleather, "Zoa", out of cultured animal free collagen mixed with natural and man made materials.
Co-founded by creators of the Uber Michelangelo feature store, Tecton is a San Francisco-based company which enables data scientists to build a library of features and serve them in production.
Airbnb provides an online platform for listing, searching and booking rental accommodations.
A software company making a workplace email communication platform for remote and office work.
Networking vendor selling enterprise wireless lan and edge access networking equipment.
Guardant Health is a Redwood City, California-based biotechnology company developing precision oncology treatments.
Snowflake Computing is a cloud-based data warehouse as a service company based in San Mateo, California founded in 2012.
Infoblox Next Level Networking brings next level security, reliability and automation to cloud and hybrid secure DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (DDI) solutions.
Bird is a company developing a vehicle sharing platform for dockless electric scooters.
Vaccitech is a T cell immunotherapy company developing products to treat and prevent infectious disease and cancer
Robust Intelligence is a Cambridge, Massachussets-based artificial intelligence company co-founded in 2019 by Harvard computer science professor Yaron Singer, Kojin Oshiba, Alexander Rilee, and Eric Balkanski.
Snapchat, a product of Snap Inc., is a free image messaging application and augmented reality platform.
A computer software company providing remote conferencing services to businesses and organizations. Zoom is a San Jose, California-based company founded in 2011 by Eric S. Yuan.
Associated investment funds
People
Aaref Hilaly
Partner
Abheek Anand
Managing Director-India
Alfred Lin
Partner
Amy Sun
Partner
Anandamoy Roychowdhary
Employee
Andrew Reed
Partner
Anirudh Mullick
Employee
Ankiti Bose
Employee
Ash Bhoopathy
Employee
Bill Coughran
Partner
Blair Shane
Partner and Chief Marketing Officer
Bret Reckard
Employee
Bryan Schreier
Partner
Carl Eschenbach
Partner
Chad Dyer
Chief Information Officer
Chandra Narayanan
Chief Data Scientist
Chris Graff
Employee
Ciprian-Miron Patru
Employee
Diane Briones
Employee
Doug Leone
Partner
Gili Raanan
Employee
Haim Sadger
Employee
Hem Wadhar
Employee
Jaime Bott
Partner, Human Capital
Further reading
Sequoia Capital investor portfolio, rounds & team
Dealroom.co
Web
Sequoia Capital just closed a giant new seed fund -- and here's how it works
Connie Loizos
Web
January 16, 2018
Sequoia India eyes a separate $200M fund for Surge programme - ETtech
www.ETtech.com
Web
April 3, 2019
Sequoia Israel Partner Raises New $100 Million Fund
Meir Orbach
Web
March 20, 2018
There's Only One Lucky Investor Who Got A Piece Of $19 Billion WhatsApp
Alyson Shontell
Web
February 19, 2014
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Billionaire Michael Moritz: Investing, Sequoia and Leadership
May 22, 2018
Conversation on Philanthropy with Bill Gates and Sir Michael Moritz
November 13, 2014
Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital: "Target Big Markets"
October 11, 2010
Finding the Next Silicon Valley with Doug Leone (Sequoia Capital) | Disrupt SF
September 6, 2018
Jess Lee: "Partner at Sequoia Capital and Former CEO" | Talks at Google
January 12, 2018
Michael Moritz, Partner, Sequoia Capital
February 7, 2019
Outsider Insight: Carl Eschenbach "Simplify to scale"
February 28, 2018
Outsider Insight: Carl Eschenbach "The only number that matters"
January 24, 2018
Outsider Insight: Doug Leone "Hope is not a plan"
January 10, 2018
Outsider Insight: Frank Slootman "Lightning in a bottle"
February 14, 2018
Outsider Insight: Frank Slootman "What's the one thing that matters?"
November 16, 2017
Companies
[24]7.ai
PV Kannan
San Jose, California
Computer Software for businesses to attract customers
100 Thieves
Matthew Haag
Los Angeles, California
Esports organization
23andMe
Anne Wojcicki
Mountain View, California
Genetic testing
3Com (HPE)
Dion Weisler
Marlborough, Massachusetts
Technology products
ActionIQ
Tasso Argyros
New York CIty, New York
Distributed data engines
AdMob
Omar Hamoui
Mountain View, California
Pay-per-click advertising marketplace
Against Gravity
Nick Fajt
Seattle, Washington
Augmented and Virtual Reality Company
Agile Software
San Jose, California
Content management software
AgilOne
AirBnb
Brian Chesky
San Francisco, California
Accommodation rental platform
AirStrip
Altiscale
AMCC (MACOM)
Stephen G. Daly
Lowell, Massachusetts
Integrated circuits manufacturer
Ameritox
Amplitude
Amylin
Pascal Soriot
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Diagnostic and therapeutic products for diabetics
App Annie
Appirio
Apple
Tim Cook
Cupertino, California
Technology and devices
Arbor/Hyperion
Armis
Aruba
Keerti Melkote
Santa Clara, California
Designs mobility-defined networks for large corporations
Aspect Development
Assurex Health
Aster Data
Mayank Bawa
San Carlos, California
Big Data management for businesses