Investors raise questions after Sequoia Capital’s turbulent year

Over the most tumultuous 12 months in its 51-year history, Sequoia Capital has spun off its highly profitable Chinese arm, slashed the size of a crypto investment fund and lost key partners including veteran Michael Moritz. Now, Silicon Valley’s most storied venture capital firm is fighting to retain the confidence of its own investors. At least one large Sequoia backer is weighing its future position in the US firm and others are concerned by recent mis-steps, including a $225mn bet on failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2021. One of Sequoia’s longest-standing backers deemed that deal a “humiliation [that] is unique in their history”. This summer, Sequoia’s chief Roelof Botha travelled across New York, Boston, Chicago and California’s Bay Area to meet more than 50 of the firm’s biggest “limited partners”, who invest in its funds. July’s trip was not to fundraise but to ease concerns from the financial institutions, non-profit organisations, pension funds and family offices that have

Over the most tumultuous 12 months in its 51-year history, Sequoia Capital has spun off its highly profitable Chinese arm, slashed the size of a crypto investment fund and lost key partners including veteran Michael Moritz. Now, Silicon Valley’s most storied venture capital firm is fighting to retain the confidence of its own investors. At least one large Sequoia backer is weighing its future position in the US firm and others are concerned by recent mis-steps, including a $225mn bet on failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2021. One of Sequoia’s longest-standing backers deemed that deal a “hu