Sequoia Capital said Wednesday it is closing its London office, ending its Arc accelerator and Scouts program, merging its early-stage and growth teams and raising about $10 billion in new funds, according to a memo posted on X and described by TechCrunch¹.

The firm framed the moves as coming out of a roughly 20-year expansion that added businesses and geographies and, it said, created hierarchy¹. TechCrunch reported that much of what is being undone was built under Doug Leone, Jim Goetz and Roelof Botha¹.

Scouts, launched around 2009, let founders and operators make small investments on Sequoia's behalf¹. Arc, launched in March 2022, was a seven-week pre-seed and seed accelerator that paid admitted companies $500,000 to $1 million up front¹. Both programs are ending as Sequoia said it wants to put more energy behind fewer people and things¹.

London opened in 2020 and is closing after six years, with several people leaving¹. The memo said Sequoia does not see a need for a local presence and that it can support European founders from the Bay Area¹. Luciana Lixandru, hired from Accel in 2020 as Sequoia's first Europe partner, said she declined an offer to move to San Francisco, remains a partner and will keep her board seats while investing personally in European founders, TechCrunch reported¹.

TechCrunch noted that Andreessen Horowitz closed its London office last year and Coatue retreated in 2024¹. Sequoia did not say it would stop funding Europeans¹.

The memo said Carl Eschenbach, the former Workday chief executive, is back as a full-time partner after returning in March, and that Doug Leone has been reinvigorated¹. Seven general partners now own and operate the firm: Alfred Lin and Pat Grady as co-stewards, plus Andrew Reed, Shaun Maguire, Konstantine Buhler, Sonya Huang and David Cahn¹.

Jess Lee, who oversaw Arc, is no longer shown as an investor on Sequoia's site and remains as chief product officer, TechCrunch reported¹. Stephanie Zahn, who joined in 2015, left last month to launch her own firm¹. Roelof Botha was voted out as senior steward last fall and cut remaining ties this summer, TechCrunch said¹.

Sequoia said it will operate as one team rather than separate early and growth groups and that the Monday partner meeting is finished¹. In 2023 it separated from its China and India/Southeast Asia arms, which became HongShan and Peak XV¹.

The memo said it is scary to break something that is working and painful to say goodbye to people¹. The seven partners signed the post on behalf of the firm¹.