Sequoia Capital raises $700M global fund

Steven Loeb · December 18, 2012 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/2c6d

Money reportedly to be used to invest in mature companies in late-stage rounds

Sequoia Capital may have raised a combined $1 billion for three early stage funds just a few months ago, but the firm obviously has interest in investing in later stage rounds as well. So to do that, the firm has gone ahead and raised yet another fund.

Sequoia Capital has raised $700 million for a new global fund, according to a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last week.

The fund is titled Sequoia Capital Global Growth Fund, L.P. While it is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, the fund will be managed from Sequoia’s headquarters on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California.

What plans Sequoia has for the money are not clear, though sources told VentureBeat that it would be used to invest in mature companies, along with other bigger, late stage investors. Given that the title of the fund includes the word “global,” that means that the money will be invested anywhere around the world where Sequoia currently has investments, including the United States. This will most likely also include China and Israel.

It is also unknown as this time who Sequoia raised the money from.

Vator contacted Sequoia for more details, but it could not be reached for comment. We will update if we get more information.

Sequoia's recent funds

In 2011, Sequoia Capital 2010 LP raised over $1.3 billion, and in August, it was reported that Sequoia had surpassed its goal of raising $975 million for three early-stage funds.

The funds will focus on the United States, China and Israel, with a different fund for each country. The stated goals were $450 million for its U.S. fund, $325 million for its China fund and $200 million for its fund in Israel, called Sequoia Capital Israel V LP, which is focusing on information technology.

Creating a separate fund for Israel is standard practice for the firm, but splitting the remaining money among the remaining countries is not how the firm operated with Sequoia Capital 2010 LP.

The $200 for the Israeli fund was in line with its previous two funds for the country, Sequoia Capital Israel III LP and Sequoia Capital Israel IV LP, which also raised around $200,000 in 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Sequoia’s investments in Israel seem wise, and forward thinking, when you consider that a report conducted by research firm Startup Genome, called the Startup Ecosystem Report 2012, ranked the top 20 startup ecosystems. Silicon Valley came in first, but Tel Aviv, Israel came in second.

Despite its young age and small population, Israel, the report said, has the highest density of startups in the world, with 63 companies listed on Nasdaq. That is more than Europe, Japan, Korea, India, and China combined. 

Founded in 1972, and celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Sequoia has funded companies including Apple, Aruba Networks, Google, YouTube, PayPal, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Electronic Arts,Yahoo!, NVIDIA, Navigenics, Cotendo, Atari, Ameritox, Kayak, Meebo, Admob, Zappos, Green Dot and LinkedIn.

(Image source: https://micronational.org)

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