China Remains Vital as Sequoia Names New Boss

Venture capital giant Sequoia Capital said Roelof Botha will take on the firm’s global leadership position, stepping into the role of senior steward from July 5 and maintaining a focus on China technology investments.

Local managing partners will remain in charge of the firm’s other regional divisions, Sequoia said, with Neil Shen set to continue to lead business in China.

Shen has been a vocal supporter of investment in enterprise tech startups in China.

Veteran investor Botha will continue to lead the company’s US and Europe business as managing partner, Sequoia said. The Silicon Valley stalwart has been expanding in Europe recently and opened an office in London last year.

The firm has been affected by US-China political issues, which have cooled some business between the countries.

But the Chinese arm of Sequoia, whose portfolio includes TikTok owner ByteDance and online fashion startup Shein, is seeking more than $8 billion across four new funds, according to a report published by The Information last month.

Botha succeeds Doug Leone, who will continue to represent Sequoia on the boards of portfolio companies and remain a general partner in its existing funds.

Botha, who spearheaded Sequoia’s investments in Meta Platforms’ Instagram, biotech firm 23andME and software firm MongoDB, joined Sequoia in 2003 and was appointed to his current role as steward in 2017.

Sequoia has established itself as one of the world’s top venture capital firms since its founding by Don Valentine in 1972.

Leone took over from Valentine as senior steward in 1997 alongside venture capitalist Michael Moritz. Moritz dropped his administrative duties in 2012, when Leone became the firm’s sole leader.

“We are proud to be the only venture capital partnership to have successfully navigated multiple leadership transitions over five decades,” Leone said in the firm’s announcement on Monday.

Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.