Sequoia to close London office and end Arc and Scouts programs

Sequoia Capital is closing its London office and has ended its Arc accelerator and Scouts program as part of a restructuring announced in a memo on X. The venture capital firm also said it had raised roughly $10 billion in new funds.

The changes bring early-stage and growth investors into a single team, reduce hierarchy within the partnership and eliminate the weekly Monday partner meeting. Sequoia said its expansion across businesses and geographies over roughly 20 years had introduced layers of management into its investing operations.

Several employees will leave because of the London closure, the firm said. Sequoia opened the office in 2020 but now says it can support European founders from its Bay Area base without maintaining a local presence.

Luciana Lixandru, who joined from Accel in 2020 as Sequoia’s first European partner, said she declined an offer to relocate to San Francisco. She said she remains a partner, will retain her board positions and will make personal investments in European founders.

The discontinued programs served founders at early stages. Scouts, launched around 2009, provided founders and operators with small amounts to invest for Sequoia. Arc began in March 2022, offering pre-seed and seed companies seven-week accelerator cohorts and $500,000 to $1 million up front.

Sequoia said seven general partners now own and operate the organization. They include co-stewards Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, alongside Andrew Reed, Shaun Maguire, Konstantine Buhler, Sonya Huang and David Cahn.