Sequoia Closes London Office, Arc and Scouts in a Memo Announcing About $10 Billion in Funds

Sequoia Capital said on Wednesday, November 4, that it is closing its London office, shutting its Arc accelerator and Scouts program, and merging its early-stage and growth teams, in a memo titled "The Sequoia of Tomorrow" posted to X. The memo also says the firm has raised roughly $10 billion in new funds, according to TechCrunch's report on the memo.

The $10 billion figure is where the two accounts of the memo part. TechCrunch writes that Sequoia "has raised" the money. Dealroom's summary says the firm "is raising" about $10 billion. Neither gives a fund name, a split between vehicles or an SEC filing, so the defensible reading is announced, not closed. For a fund that did file, see the site's coverage of Ballistic Ventures' two funds and $490 million in SEC filings; for a round reported without a filed amount, see Fal's Series F.

What Sequoia shut and what it merged

The memo's own wording is blunt. On London it says, "We simply don't see the need for a local presence." On structure it says, "There is no more 'Early & Growth'." On the weekly ritual it says, "Founders operate 24/7, and so do we," and the Monday partner meeting is gone.

Unit	Opened	Status in the memo
London office	2020	Closing; several people leave
Arc accelerator	March 2022	Shut down
Scouts program	About 2009	Shut down
Early and Growth teams	Separate	Merged into one

Arc ran seven-week cohorts several times a year and put $500,000 to $1 million into each accepted company up front, per TechCrunch's 2022 coverage cited in its report. Scouts gave small cheques to founders and operators to invest on the firm's behalf.

Who stays and who left

TechCrunch lists seven general partners who "own and operate" the firm under the new structure: Alfred Lin and Pat Grady as co-stewards, plus Andrew Reed, Shaun Maguire, Konstantine Buhler, Sonya Huang and David Cahn. Carl Eschenbach, the former Workday chief executive, returned as a full-time partner in March 2026.

The departures are as informative as the list. Roelof Botha, voted out as senior steward in fall 2025, cut ties with the firm this summer and joined SpaceX's board. Stephanie Zhan left to start her own firm. Jess Lee, who oversaw Arc, is no longer listed as an investor on the firm's site and now holds the title of chief product officer.

Luciana Lixandru, hired from Accel in 2020 as Sequoia's first European partner, declined a move to San Francisco. She remains a partner and keeps her board seats. On X she wrote, "Europe is where my family is, and where I want to build," and Dealroom reports she will also invest personally in European founders. She credited the London team with early backing of Pennylane, Trade Republic, Robco and Aspora, among others.

The pattern across London closures

Sequoia is not first out. TechCrunch notes that Andreessen Horowitz closed its London office in 2025 and Coatue did so in 2024. In 2023 Sequoia itself separated its China and India and Southeast Asia arms, which became HongShan and Peak XV. Read against that history, the new memo finishes a retreat to one base rather than starting one.

For European founders the practical change is the cheque route. The firm says it will keep backing them from the Bay Area, which removes the local partner who could attend a board meeting without a flight. A seed-stage founder who would have applied to Arc now has no Sequoia programme to apply to.

The memo says, "Our objective function is not scale, but quality." That is a claim about intent, and the first evidence will be the portfolio: whether the merged team's next European cheques come at the same pace as the London team's did. Lixandru has said an announcement on her next steps is pending, which is the next observable event.