Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital was founded by Don Valentine in 1972. The firm’s first fund was $3 million, and the companies it backed included Apple and Atari.⁠[1]

Atari was Sequoia’s earliest investment. In 1975, Don Valentine backed the video game company founded by Nolan Bushnell; Bushnell later recalled that Valentine inspected the factory before investing and helped the company scale up production to meet demand for home Pong. In 1976, Atari was acquired by Warner Communications. This event concerned the original Atari company and should not be confused with later listed entities that used the Atari brand.⁠[2][3]

Atari’s official history records the price of Warner Communications’ 1976 acquisition of the company as $28 million, and the deal supported continued development of the home game console later known as the Atari 2600. The price applies to the whole company; the source does not state the share Sequoia sold or its proceeds.⁠[4]

Sequoia invested in Apple in 1978. A Fordham University retrospective on Don Valentine records the investment as $150,000. In a recollection published by Sequoia, Valentine said he met Steve JobsSteve JobsSteve Jobs (1955–2011) was a technology entrepreneur, Apple co-founder, NeXT founder, and investor and former CEO of Pixar. His career spanned personal computing, digital music, smartphones and animated films, with an emphasis on product design, user experience and multidisciplinary teams.Open the full entry through Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and what he valued was a market in which ordinary households could also buy and use computers.⁠[5][14][15]

A 2014 Harvard Business School historical case records that Sequoia sold its Apple shares in the summer of 1979 for tax reasons and considerations of distributions to investors. Apple then went public in 1980. Therefore, Apple’s market value at its IPO cannot be used directly to calculate the actual proceeds from Sequoia’s early investment; the case also does not give the total sale amount.⁠[16][5]

Sequoia began working with Oracle in 1983, entering the enterprise database software field. A Harvard Business School historical case dates the investment to April 1983. Oracle went public in 1986.⁠[7][16]

Sequoia invested in Cisco in 1987. A Harvard Business School case records the investment amount as $2.5 million; Don Valentine subsequently served as Cisco’s chairman for many years and took part in building the company’s management team, including bringing in John Morgridge. Cisco went public in 1990.⁠[10][16][14]

On June 7, 1999, Google announced $25 million in equity financing provided jointly by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, with Michael MoritzMichael MoritzMichael Moritz is a venture capitalist, writer, and philanthropist who was a partner at Sequoia Capital from 1986 to July 2023 and long served as a member of the firm’s leadership and as its chairman. He represented Sequoia in investments in and on the boards of companies including Yahoo, Google, PayPal, Zappos, Stripe, and Klarna, and he is involved in San Francisco civic affairs through his family foundation Crankstart, local San Francisco media, and political donations.Open the full entry and John Doerr joining the board. WIRED later recorded that each firm contributed $12.5 million; its interview about bringing in an outside CEO attributed the specific work of arranging meetings and introducing Eric Schmidt to Doerr. Google went public in 2004.⁠[26][27][25]

Sequoia began working with PayPalPayPalPayPal Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL) is an American digital payments company that operates payment brands including PayPal, Venmo, Braintree, and Xoom, providing online and in-store payments, money transfers, and consumer credit to consumers and merchants worldwide.Open the full entry in 1999, and its website lists Michael Moritz as the associated investor. PayPal went public in 2002, and on October 3 of the same year eBayeBayeBay Inc. is an online marketplace company headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar; it started out with person-to-person online auctions and listed on Nasdaq in 1998. As of the end of 2025, it had 135 million active buyers, and its platform’s gross merchandise volume in 2025 was nearly $80 billion.Open the full entry announced the completion of its acquisition, with each PayPal share exchanged for 0.39 eBay shares. The deal value of about $1.5 billion was calculated using eBay’s share price around the time the deal was announced in July and represents the consideration for the company as a whole.⁠[24][28]

Sequoia began backing YouTube in 2005, with Roelof Botha as the associated partner. On November 13, 2006, Google announced the completion of the acquisition; under the deal terms, the consideration was calculated as about $1.65 billion in stock value less about $15 million in bridge financing, and some of the shares were placed in a one-year escrow arrangement. At the time of the acquisition announcement, WIRED cited reports putting Sequoia’s cumulative investment at about $11.5 million and estimating that its stake of about 30% could correspond to about $480 million. This was a projected value at the time and cannot be regarded as cash already received.⁠[29][39][40]

Sequoia’s website lists 2009 as the year it first partnered with Airbnb. On November 10, 2010, Airbnb announced a $7.2 million Series A round, with investors including Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners, bringing the company’s total funding at the time to $7.8 million. The announcement listed the uses of the funds as international expansion, product development, and hiring.⁠[42][43]

Jim Goetz recounted that Sequoia began working with WhatsApp in January 2011. His account of the investment emphasized the direct connections enabled by phone contacts, a simple instant-messaging product, and a growth approach that at the time did not rely on advertising or paid user acquisition. These descriptions reflect the product and operations at the time the acquisition was announced in 2014.⁠[44]

On July 25, 2011, Airbnb announced the completion of a $112 million Series B round led by Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry, with participation from DST GlobalDST GlobalDST Global is a technology investment firm founded by Yuri Milner in 2009 that focuses on growth-stage investments in internet companies worldwide; it has invested in companies including Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba, JD.com, Airbnb and Spotify, and in 2026 led the US$400 million Series B round of the AI visual content company Higgsfield.Open the full entry and General CatalystGeneral CatalystGeneral Catalyst (GC) is an investment firm founded in 2000 and headquartered in San Francisco, United States, created by Joel Cutler, David Fialkow and Bill Fitzgerald, that backs companies from the seed stage through growth.Open the full entry, bringing the company’s total funding to $119.8 million. Sequoia was already an investor, but this announcement did not separately list any additional amount from Sequoia in the Series B.⁠[45]

In December 2011, Klarna announced that it had raised $155 million from DST Global and General AtlanticGeneral AtlanticGeneral Atlantic is a global investment firm founded in 1980 that grew out of Chuck Feeney’s family investment business. Growth equity is at its core, and through GA Credit, BeyondNetZero and Actis it also invests in credit, the energy transition and infrastructure. As of June 30, 2026, its assets under management across all strategies were about $130 billion.Open the full entry. The announcement also recalled that Sequoia Capital had become its largest non-founder shareholder in 2010, with Michael Moritz serving as a director. The announcement did not list the $155 million as a contribution from Sequoia, nor did it make clear whether Sequoia took part in this additional financing.⁠[46]

ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry’s interview with WhatsApp’s founders and Jim Goetz recorded that Sequoia initially invested $8 million and invested another $50 million in February 2013, when the company was valued at $1.5 billion. Goetz said that when securing the initial investment, he promised not to push an advertising business model and to support the company as a strategic adviser.⁠[66]

On February 19, 2014, Facebook announced that it would acquire WhatsApp for $16 billion, consisting of $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in stock, and would additionally grant WhatsApp’s founders and employees about $3 billion in restricted stock units vesting over four years. The commonly cited $19 billion headline figure therefore includes both the acquisition consideration and employee incentives.⁠[67]

In its March 2014 coverage of the acquisition, Forbes, taking Sequoia’s cumulative investment of $58 million as the basis, estimated the value of its stake in the deal at about $3.5 billion, roughly 60 times cost. The report was published before the deal closed; the figure reflects an estimate of the deal at the time and is not the same as cash from later sales of Facebook stock or distributions to limited partners.⁠[68]

Sequoia lists 2016 as the year it first partnered with Zoom. On January 17, 2017, Zoom announced a $100 million Series D round, with Sequoia Capital providing the main backing; existing investors Emergence Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures also invested further, and Carl Eschenbach joined the board. Zoom had raised a total of $45.5 million before the announcement and went public in 2019.⁠[77][78]

In October 2018, Sequoia led Snowflake’s $450 million growth round; the announcement disclosed a pre-money valuation of $3.5 billion and total funding to date of $923 million. Meritech Capital Partners joined as a new investor, and several existing investors followed on. The company planned to expand its U.S. and international operations, its engineering team, and its support for cloud platforms.⁠[88]

Figma announced on February 14, 2019 that it had completed a $40 million Series C round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from CoatueCoatueCoatue is a technology- and innovation-focused investment management firm founded by Philippe Laffont in 1999, operating in both public and private markets. Its current website lists Thomas Laffont as co-founder and chief investment officer of private investments; a Form ADV filed on July 29, 2026, disclosed regulatory assets under management of $92,705,722,582.Open the full entry, Founders FundFounders FundFounders Fund is a venture capital firm founded in San Francisco in 2005 by Peter Thiel and his former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Run by partners who were entrepreneurs themselves, it argues that founders should keep more control and is known for betting on difficult technology projects in areas such as space, defense, and artificial intelligence. It was Palantir’s first institutional investor, has invested in SpaceX many times since 2008, and its other notable investments include Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, and Anduril; as of March 2026 it had raised nine early-stage funds and four growth funds.Open the full entry, and existing investors, among others. Building on collaborative design in the browser, Figma used the funding for team and product building, including design systems, extensibility, and its user community. Sequoia’s website lists Andrew Reed as the associated investor.⁠[97][98]

On September 15, 2020, Snowflake announced the pricing of its initial public offering at $120 per share for a base offering of 28 million shares, totaling $3.36 billion at the offering price, before expenses and excluding the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. The public offering was a financing and share liquidity event for the company; the announcement did not state the proceeds Sequoia obtained in the offering.⁠[109]

DoorDash disclosed in its prospectus that, as of September 30, 2020, it had raised a total of about $2.5 billion through the issuance and conversion of redeemable convertible preferred stock and convertible notes, net of issuance costs and excluding a $68 million non-cash forward contract liability. This is the company’s total funding across all rounds and involves multiple investors.⁠[110]

In October 2021, Sequoia announced a restructuring of the fund structure for its U.S. and European businesses. The open-ended Sequoia Capital Fund holds more liquid public securities and allocates capital to closed-end sub-funds covering the seed through growth stages; proceeds from the sub-funds’ investments flow back into the fund, where they can continue to be invested and held. This design makes continuing to hold shares after a company goes public part of the fund structure, while giving limited partners liquidity options. In the announcement, Sequoia also proposed becoming a registered investment adviser and continuing to provide support in recruiting, customer engagement, and company building.⁠[123]

In 2023, Sequoia Capital’s U.S./Europe business, its China business, and its India/Southeast Asia business decided to become partnerships with independent brands. The India and Southeast Asia team operates under the Peak XV PartnersPeak XV PartnersPeak XV Partners is a venture capital firm that grew out of Sequoia’s India and Southeast Asia business, investing across the seed, venture and growth stages in markets including India, Asia-Pacific and the United States. The firm began operating as Sequoia Capital India in 2006 and adopted its current name and became independent in 2023.Open the full entry brand. In a June announcement, Peak XV explained that the three regions already made investment decisions independently, and that as they grew in scale, differences in strategy, brand confusion, and portfolio conflicts led to this change. The Sequoia portfolio listed in this entry comes from the Sequoia Capital website and does not count the current investments of the other two firms.⁠[126]

In September 2024, Bloomberg reported that Safe Superintelligence, co-founded by Ilya Sutskever, had raised $1 billion, with investors including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, SV AngelSV AngelSV Angel is a San Francisco venture capital firm cofounded in 2009 by angel investor Ron Conway and former Google executive David Lee. It typically writes small follow-on checks in seed rounds and has invested in companies such as Airbnb, Pinterest, and Dropbox; in 2018 it said it would no longer raise new funds from outside investors, and from 2022 it set up growth funds.Open the full entry, and NFDG. The company’s research goal is safe superintelligence; Sequoia’s website lists its first partnership as 2024, with Andrew Reed and Shaun Maguire as the associated investors.⁠[127][128]

AxiosAxiosAxios is a US digital news media company founded in 2016 by former Politico executives Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz and launched in January 2017. It is known for short news items and industry newsletters in the “Smart Brevity” style, especially for its Washington political coverage, and publishes local news newsletters in cities across the United States through Axios Local. Since 2022 it has been owned by Cox Enterprises.Open the full entry reported that Sequoia bought Stripe shares from investors in its early funds at $27.51 per share, corresponding to a company valuation of $70 billion. A September report confirmed that the $861 million transaction had been completed and that Stripe raised no money from it.⁠[129][130]

In October 2024, Stripe confirmed its arrangement to acquire Bridge. Payments Dive, citing reports at the time, put the deal size at about $1.1 billion; Stripe did not disclose the price in its own completion announcement. Bridge is a stablecoin payments infrastructure company, and Sequoia’s website lists it as a company it began partnering with in 2023.⁠[131][122][132]

Stripe announced on February 4, 2025 that it had completed its acquisition of the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge. Sequoia’s partnership with Bridge began in 2023, with Josephine Chen and Shaun Maguire as the associated investors. The deal was announced in 2024 and completed in 2025, and the two dates should be recorded separately.⁠[122][132]

A later SpaceXSpaceXSpaceX is a company founded by Elon Musk in 2002 whose businesses include space transportation, Starlink satellite communications and artificial intelligence. It went public in 2026 under the ticker SPCX.Open the full entry filing with the SEC records that on March 28, 2025, X and X.AI Corp. were merged into X.AI Holdings through a share exchange. Sequoia’s website displays X, xAI, and SpaceX separately, so several names in the portfolio list may have become interests within the same group through later transactions.⁠[139][142][143]

On June 2, 2025, brain-computer interface developer Neuralink announced the completion of a $650 million Series E round, with participation from Sequoia Capital along with ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Lightspeed, QIA, Thrive Capital, and others. Sequoia’s website lists 2025 as the year of first partnership. The announcement lists the size of the whole round and does not break out each firm’s contribution.⁠[144][145]

On September 9, 2025, Klarna announced an IPO price of $40 per share for a base offering of 34,311,274 shares. Of these, 5 million were new shares issued by the company, corresponding to $200 million; the remaining 29,311,274 shares were sold by existing shareholders. The company’s investor relations page, citing the prospectus dated September 10, showed that on a basis after completion of the IPO and the underwriters’ option, Sequoia-affiliated entities held 20.32% of the ordinary shares and 22.60% of the total voting power. This is a snapshot of ownership at the time of the IPO.⁠[147][148]

In October 2025, Sequoia announced a new venture fund and its sixth dedicated seed fund. The areas of focus listed in the announcement included AI applications, software development and security tools, stablecoins, robotics, and other technology areas; the amounts raised for the two funds were not disclosed.⁠[149]

In November 2025, Alfred LinAlfred LinAlfred Lin is an American venture capitalist who has been a partner at Sequoia Capital since 2010 and, since November 2025, one of the firm’s co-stewards together with Pat Grady. Before joining Sequoia he was an executive at LinkExchange, Tellme Networks, and Zappos, companies acquired by Microsoft and Amazon; at Sequoia he has represented the firm on the boards of companies including Airbnb and DoorDash.Open the full entry published a letter to the Sequoia team written jointly with Pat Grady, stating that the two would take on leadership of the firm while continuing to find and lead new investments, and would jointly lead the early-stage and growth investment teams. Both continue to use the title Partner externally. The letter emphasized that the firm should endure as a partnership rather than depend on any single leader.⁠[150]

When Listen Labs announced its Series B in January 2026, it listed Sequoia as an existing investor continuing to back the company; the round was led by Ribbit CapitalRibbit CapitalRibbit Capital is a venture-capital firm founded in 2012 by Meyer “Micky” Malka and headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It began with financial-technology investing and has expanded into AI, commerce and related infrastructure. Its investments include Coinbase, Robinhood and Nubank.Open the full entry, with other participants including Evantic, Conviction, and Pear VC.⁠[153]

On February 2, 2026, SpaceX completed its acquisition of X.AI Holdings through a share exchange, and xAI became a wholly owned subsidiary. The share exchange converted former xAI securities into SpaceX securities; the filing did not describe this conversion as Sequoia receiving an equivalent amount of cash.⁠[139]

AnthropicAnthropicAnthropic is an artificial intelligence research and product company founded in 2021 that develops the Claude models, assistant, and tools such as Claude Code, and operates as a public benefit corporation. Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei are its co-founders, and its research covers model safety, interpretability, and steerability.Open the full entry announced on February 12, 2026 that it had completed a $30 billion Series G round at a post-money valuation of $380 billion, with Sequoia Capital among the participants. Sequoia’s website lists 2026 as the year of its first partnership with Anthropic.⁠[154][155]

Stripe disclosed on February 24, 2026 that a tender offer for current and former employees corresponded to a company valuation of $159 billion, funded by Thrive Capital, Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, and Stripe itself. This was a separate liquidity arrangement by the company, not the amount or valuation of Sequoia’s 2024 purchase of shares from limited partners.⁠[156]

On May 28, 2026, Anthropic announced a $65 billion Series H round at a post-money valuation of $965 billion. Sequoia Capital co-led the round with Altimeter, Dragoneer, and Greenoaks, with several other firms also participating. The company said the funds would be used for compute infrastructure, research, and product expansion. The $65 billion is the size of the whole round.⁠[158]

SpaceX completed its IPO on June 15, 2026, issuing 638,888,888 Class A shares at $135 per share, including the underwriters’ full additional allotment. Its quarterly report disclosed net proceeds of $85.675 billion after underwriting and offering expenses. Sequoia’s website lists 2020 as the year of its first partnership with SpaceX.⁠[139][159]

In July 2026, Prelude announced that it was changing its name to Origin, shifting its business from security testing tools to observability of AI usage on enterprise endpoints, helping identify interactions between people and AI tools and their impact. The company directory on Sequoia’s website retains the investment relationship and now uses the Origin name; the renaming does not constitute the addition of a new portfolio company.⁠[160][161]

On September 9, 2026, The Boring CompanyThe Boring CompanyAn American tunneling company founded by Elon Musk that develops Prufrock machines and builds and operates Loop transportation systems.Open the full entry announced a $3 billion Series D round at a $23 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital among the participants.⁠[162]

On October 8, 2026, Sequoia announced that it had led Catalyst’s $30 million seed round, with participation from Jump TradingJump TradingJump Trading is a proprietary trading firm headquartered in Chicago. It was founded in 1999 by two former Chicago Mercantile Exchange pit traders, built its business on algorithmic and high-frequency trading, and trades equities, options, credit, commodities, futures, and digital assets. Since 2021 its crypto business has operated under the Jump Crypto brand and has worked on blockchain infrastructure projects including Wormhole, Pyth, and Firedancer; in December 2024 its subsidiary Tai Mo Shan settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over trading related to TerraUSD, paying about $123 million without admitting or denying the findings.Open the full entry, Peak XV Partners, Lux CapitalLux CapitalLux Capital is a U.S. venture capital firm founded in 2000 by Peter Hébert, Josh Wolfe and Robert Paull, with offices in New York and Silicon Valley. Focused on emerging science and technology, the firm backs companies in fields including life sciences, artificial intelligence, robotics, manufacturing, aerospace and defense through fund investments and by helping to found companies.Open the full entry, Anti FundAnti FundAnti Fund is an investment firm co-founded in 2021 by Jake Paul and Geoff Woo, investing from pre-seed and seed stages through growth-stage companies. The firm combines technical judgment with its founders’ experience in media and consumer brands, focusing on artificial intelligence, robotics, defense and related infrastructure.Open the full entry, CoinbaseCoinbaseCoinbase is a U.S. operator of crypto asset trading platforms, founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, whose listed parent is Coinbase Global, Inc.; it went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq (ticker COIN) in April 2021 and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025. It provides crypto trading, custody, staking, and stablecoin-related services, launched USDC with Circle, develops the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, and acquired the crypto options exchange Deribit in 2025; its venture investing operates as Coinbase Ventures.Open the full entry, and Premji InvestPremji InvestPremji Invest is an investment firm established by Azim Premji in 2006, operating across private and public markets in India and the United States, with investment returns primarily supporting the philanthropic work of the Azim Premji Foundation. Its investment areas include technology, financial services, consumer, healthcare and industrials.Open the full entry; $30 million is the size of the whole round. Founded in 2025 by Justin ZhengJustin ZhengJustin Zheng is an American entrepreneur and a co-founder of Catalyst, a startup building AI trading agents. He raised his first seed round at 16 and joined Worldcoin in 2019; in 2025 he co-founded Catalyst with Dylan Iskandar, and in October 2026 the company announced a $30 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital.Open the full entry and Dylan IskandarDylan IskandarDylan Iskandar is an American entrepreneur and a co-founder of Catalyst, a startup building AI trading agents. He studied classical piano from early childhood, did cybersecurity research for the U.S. Department of Defense in high school, and entered Stanford University as a Jane Street scholar before leaving to build Catalyst; in October 2026 the company announced a $30 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital.Open the full entry, Catalyst develops AI agents for retail trading that turn intents users express in natural language into trading strategies and execute them, subject to the user’s confirmation before execution.⁠[163][164][164][164]

On the same day, partner George RobsonGeorge RobsonGeorge Robson is a partner at Sequoia Capital focused on seed and early-stage investing, who has led or co-led financings in fintech and other companies including Pennylane, Zefir, nsave, Tola, Aspora, WithCoverage, and Catalyst. Before joining Sequoia, he worked at Morgan Stanley and Revolut.Open the full entry published the article “Partnering with Catalyst: Turning Ideas into Trades,” describing how, after a user states an investment thesis in natural language, Catalyst’s agents gather and analyze market signals, find an execution path across platforms and trading venues, and help backtest and deploy strategies with clear limits and safety controls. Robson noted that the team includes founding engineers at Palantir, the first engineering hire at Scale AI, and tech leads from Citadel, Citadel SecuritiesCitadel SecuritiesCitadel Securities is an American market maker founded in Chicago in 2002 by Ken Griffin and partners and headquartered in Miami, providing liquidity to institutional and retail investors across a range of financial products. It is a separate company from Citadel, the hedge fund Griffin founded in 1990.Open the full entry, Hudson River TradingHudson River TradingHudson River Trading is a proprietary trading firm headquartered at 3 World Trade Center in New York. Through its broker-dealer HRT Financial LP it trades for its own account and makes markets in US equities, options and futures, and it also handles part of the customer order flow of the retail broker Robinhood.Open the full entry, and Jump Trading, and said the company’s goal is to build a “universal orchestration layer” for turning financial ideas into reality. Sequoia’s website lists Robson as the partner responsible for the company, with 2026 as the year of partnership.⁠[163][163][163][163][165]