Sequoia Capital Closes Its London Office, Pulls Back From Europe

The firm insists it is not abandoning European startups. It says it will support the continent's founders directly from its headquarters in the San Francisco area, and that it is convinced Europe will keep producing exceptional entrepreneurs and companies.

Part of a wider restructuring

The closure comes with a broader reorganization. Sequoia is merging its seed and growth teams and wants to flatten the hierarchy between partners. It also says it has raised roughly $10 billion in new funds.

Since arriving in Europe, the firm had been active in French Tech. It backed Pennylane, the French unicorn focused on accounting and financial management for businesses, as well as AI startups such as Gladia and Dust.

The retreat is not entirely unexpected. Sequoia had already scaled back some European activity by ending its Scouts program in France and across Europe, which let entrepreneurs and investors fund young startups.

Other US funds have left London

Sequoia is not the first major American investor to leave the UK capital. Coatue closed its London office in 2024, and Andreessen Horowitz made a similar move a year later, less than two years after opening there.

For European founders, the signal is that some of Silicon Valley's biggest names now see little need for a local base. Access to their capital and advice will increasingly run through California rather than through a European partner on the ground.