US-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has launched a $950 million early-stage investment initiative, including a $750 million Series A fund and a $200 million seed fund, to back founders from pre-seed to early-stage companies.
- Established in 1972 by Don Valentine, Sequoia Capital develops investment strategies to identify and support outlier founders from the earliest stages through IPO and beyond.
- The firm manages a portfolio across technology, AI, fintech, security, consumer, healthcare, and hardware sectors, providing hands-on operational guidance while investing capital primarily on behalf of long-term institutional and nonprofit partners.
- Its portfolio includes companies such as Apple, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Vanta, Harvey, Airbnb, Maven, Zipline, Robinhood, Fireworks AI, SpaceX, Nubank, Figma, and OpenEvidence.
- Sequoia Capital’s new early-stage funds, a $750 million Series A fund and a $200 million seed fund, are designed to invest in founders at the very start of their startup journey.
- The $750 million fund will target early-stage companies with initial traction, while the $200 million seed fund will back pre-seed and seed-stage founders, allowing Sequoia to secure meaningful ownership at lower valuations.
- The funds will focus on high-potential sectors, including AI-driven applications across consumer, enterprise, healthcare, robotics, and e-commerce; cybersecurity and network/data-center security; digital assets and fintech; physical AI and hardware; and entertainment and creative AI tools.
“I am excited to meet founders who use Europe as their product and engineering hub, but who want to take over the world. Europe’s founder pool has never been stronger. A new wave of repeat entrepreneurs and alumni from breakout scaleups bring hard-won judgment, world-class product taste, and the muscle memory of going from zero to global," explains Luciana Lixandru, Partner at Sequoia Capital.
