Sequoia Capital Brings In $3.35 Billion To Invest In U.S. And Chinese Startups

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 5, 2019
  • Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has raised nearly $3.35 billion to invest in U.S. and Chinese startups

In a few Form D filings with the U.S. SEC — which were spotted by Crunchbase — it has been revealed that Sequoia Capital has closed nearly $3.35 billion to invest in U.S. and Chinese startups. The filings are amendments to prior disclosures from June 2018 when Sequoia started raising capital for the funds.

Of the $3.35 billion, the Sequoia Capital U.S. Growth Fund VIII, L.P. raised $998.5 million. And 120 limited partners invested in the fund.

And Sequoia is putting $1.7995 billion in the Sequoia Capital China Growth Fund V, L.P. and $549.5 million in the Sequoia Capital China Venture Fund VII, L.P.

Sequoia entered the Chinese market in 2005. Sequoia Capital China founder Neil Shen had set up the venture firm’s offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

The fifth China Growth Fund is Sequoia’s largest to date as it is twice the size of the fourth. Sequoia had raised $899.5 million for China Growth Fund IV between 2016 and 2017.

These filings were initially submitted on June 19, 2018. Around that time, Sequoia also published a filing for Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Fund XVI and Sequoia Capital China Seed Fund I. But those funds have not been updated yet.

Sequoia was originally founded 47 years ago. And Sequoia Capital is known for backing companies such as Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Snap, Alibaba, and TikTok in the early stages.

Some of Sequoia’s executives include: partner Roelof Botha, partner Konstantine Buhler, partner Bill Coughran, partner Jim Goetz, partner Liu Jiang, partner Jess Lee, global managing partner Douglas Leone, partner Alfred Lin, partner Shaun Maguire, partner Ravi Gupta, partner Sonya Huang, partner Kais Khimji, partner Michael Moritz, partner Bryan Schreier, partner Mike Vernal, partner Jaime Bott, partner Amy Sun, partner Stephanie Zhan, partner Michael Abramson, partner Carl Eschenbach, partner Matt Miller, partner Pat Grady, partner Andrew Reed, design partner James Buckhouse, chief information officer Chad Dyer, US CFO Marie Klemchuk, chief legal officer Donald Vieira, head of content James Ledbetter, head of communications Natalie Miyake Boston, director of people operations Patricia Ma, department head of corporate development Jeff Pashalides, partner and CMO Blair Shane, and US chief legal officer Jung Yeon Son. In late October, Sequoia founder Don Valentine (known as “the grandfather of Silicon Valley venture capital”) passed away.