Sequoia Capital is closing its London office, shutting its Arc accelerator and Scouts program, merging its early-stage and growth teams and flattening its partnership, while saying it has raised roughly $10 billion in new funds, according to TechCrunch. The changes are described in a memo titled “The Sequoia of Tomorrow” that Sequoia posted to X on the morning of Wednesday, November 4, 2026, TechCrunch reported.

What the memo announces, per TechCrunch

  • New funds: roughly $10 billion (“~$10Bn” in the memo).
  • London office: closing. It opened in 2020, and several people will leave. The memo says, “We simply don’t see the need for a local presence.”
  • Arc: closing. Launched in March 2022, it ran several seven-week cohorts a year for pre-seed and seed founders, with admitted companies receiving $500,000 to $1 million up front.
  • Scouts: closing. Launched around 2009, it gave small checks to founders and operators to invest on Sequoia’s behalf. TechCrunch credits it with pointing Sequoia to Uber (via Jason Calacanis) and Stripe (via Sam Altman).
  • Teams: the early-stage and growth teams are merged into one.
  • Partnership: flattened. The memo says hierarchy was an unintended side effect of the expansion, and the Monday partner meeting is discontinued.
  • Fund structure: the memo says much of the complexity associated with the Sequoia Capital Fund has been removed.

Memo language

The memo is signed by Sequoia’s seven general partners “on behalf of Team Sequoia,” per TechCrunch. It says, “Our objective function is not scale, but quality,” and, about the Monday meeting, “Founders operate 24/7, and so do we.” It also says that Europe will keep producing outlier founders and companies and that Sequoia can support them from the Bay Area.

Reaction from the London team

Luciana Lixandru, whom Sequoia hired from Accel in 2020 as its first European partner, wrote on X that “Europe is where my family is, and where I want to build,” TechCrunch reports. She was offered a move to San Francisco and declined. She remains a partner, keeps her board seats and invests personally in European founders.

Context in the report

TechCrunch notes that Andreessen Horowitz closed its London office last year and Coatue closed its London office in 2024. It also notes that Sequoia separated its China and India/Southeast Asia arms in 2023, and that they became HongShan and Peak XV. The report says Stephanie Zhan announced her departure last month, and that Roelof Botha was voted out as senior steward last fall and cut ties with the firm this summer.

Sources and notes

This post is based on TechCrunch’s report by Connie Loizos, published at 9:11 a.m. PST on November 4, 2026. Lens did not read Sequoia’s memo or Lixandru’s post directly; the quotations are as TechCrunch reproduced them. TechCrunch’s article also includes the author’s own reading of the changes, which this post does not repeat. Lens did not contact Sequoia.

Image: the Sand Hill Road exit sign on Interstate 280 near Menlo Park, California, by Coolcaesar via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped. Illustrative photo; it does not show the events described.