Sequoia shuts its London office six years in and raises $10B, while partner Luciana Lixandru stays in Europe
What's the deal? Sequoia is closing its London office, six years after opening it in 2020, and several people will leave the firm. "This is not about the team - they are excellent. We simply don't see the need for a local presence," the firm wrote in "The Sequoia of Tomorrow", a post signed by its seven general partners. It says Europe will keep producing outlier founders and that it can support them from its Bay Area home base.
Why now? The closure is part of a wider overhaul a year after Sequoia's generational leadership transition. The firm says it has raised about $10 billion in new funds, simplified the Sequoia Capital Fund, sunset its Arc accelerator and Scouts programmes, merged Early and Growth into one team, flattened the partnership and dropped its Monday partner meeting cycle. "Our objective function is not scale, but quality," it wrote.
The London team: Luciana LixandruDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Sequoia's first partner in Europe, hired from Accel in 2020, said she was offered the chance to move to San Francisco and chose to stay: "My conviction on Europe hasn't moved, and neither am I." She remains a Partner at Sequoia and keeps her board seats, while also investing personally in European founders, with "more to share on my next steps soon". She credited the London team with backing Pennylane, STARK, Profound, Rillet, Robco, Serval, Nevis, Avelios, Aspora and Trade Republic in their early days. Anas Biad is relocating to San Francisco with the firm. Julien Bek wrote that he is staying in Europe without confirming whether he is leaving Sequoia, and George Robson's status is unclear.
Context: Sequoia is the latest big US investor to pull out of London, after Andreessen Horowitz closed its office in 2025 and Coatue withdrew in 2024, according to Investing.com. The retreat comes as UK startups raised $23.7 billion in venture capital last year, up 33%, with foreign investors supplying 74% of UK venture funding in 2025, City AM reports, citing Dealroom figures.
What could go wrong? The reversal, just six years after opening, risks being read across the UK and European ecosystem as a vote of no confidence, even as Sequoia says it remains committed to European founders.
The signal: The retreat matters more for where a major investor deploys its people than for European funding levels. Europe still relies heavily on US capital for its largest rounds, which makes Sequoia's choice of base, and Lixandru's choice to stay, pointed ones.
Read more: Sequoia: The Sequoia of Tomorrow (X), Luciana Lixandru (X), Pathfounders, City AM, Bloomberg, Investing.com
Image: the City of London. Credit: City AM
