Sequoia raises €8.9 billion, shuts London office in retreat to Bay Area

Sequoia Capital has raised €8.89 billion ($10 billion) in new funds and will close its London office, ending its physical presence in Europe after roughly 20 years of expansion. The firm announced the changes in a memo titled "The Sequoia of Tomorrow", calling the shift a return to high-conviction, highly selective venture investing from its home base in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Three of Sequoia's four London-based partners — Luciana Lixandru, Julien Bek and George Robson — have declined relocation offers and will stay in Europe. Anas Biad is the only London partner confirmed to move to the United States and remain with the firm.

"We are closing our London office, which means several people will be leaving Sequoia. This is not about the team – they are excellent. We simply don't see the need for a local presence. We believe that Europe will continue to produce outlier founders and companies, and that we can continue to provide world class support from our home base in the Bay Area," the firm said.

Why are the partners staying?

Lixandru joined Sequoia in 2020 as its first European partner. She backed Trade Republic, Pennylane and Rillet. She will remain a Sequoia partner, keep her portfolio board seats and invest personally in the next generation of European founders.

"My conviction on Europe hasn't moved, and neither am I; when given the opportunity to move to San Francisco, I chose to stay here and focus on this wonderful, imperfect ecosystem. Europe is where my family is, and where I want to build," she wrote on LinkedIn.

Bek spent a decade investing in European founders through Sequoia, backing Revolut, Miro, Attio and Dust. He says he is already thinking about what the next decade in European venture could look like.

"My heart is in Europe, and I've decided to stay here. I'll continue supporting the founders I work with and serving on my boards," he said.

Robson also opted to remain in Europe, though the source does not record a public statement from him.

How deep does the restructuring go?

The London closure is one piece of a broader simplification. Sequoia will:

• simplify the structure of the Sequoia Capital Fund;
• shut down its Arc batch accelerator and its Scouts programmes;
• streamline operational and investing teams;
• eliminate the distinction between Early and Growth stages, consolidating into a single team under one mission;
• end its Monday partner meeting cycle.

The firm framed the last change around founder schedules rather than its own calendar. "Founders operate 24/7, and so do we. Founders shouldn't have to adhere to our process – we will do our best to adhere to yours," the firm said.

The logic is concentration. After two decades of building multiple businesses across geographies, Sequoia has concluded that fewer, larger bets run from California serve it better than distributed teams and adjacent programmes.

Is Europe losing US venture capital?

Sequoia is the second major US firm to abandon London recently. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) shuttered its London office in early 2025, less than two years after opening its first international outpost in the UK.

Two departures do not make an exodus, but the pattern narrows the on-the-ground options for European founders seeking US capital. The partners staying behind soften the blow: Lixandru, Bek and Robson retain board seats and, in Lixandru's case, a personal investment mandate focused on European founders.

The open question is what those three do next. They remain Sequoia partners today, yet their stated commitment to building in Europe suggests their long-term futures sit closer to the ecosystem they backed than to the Bay Area fund they are declining to join. European founders will now weigh whether world-class support really travels across an ocean without a local office behind it.