By Krystal Hu
(Reuters) -Michael Moritz, the storied venture capitalist who sits on the boards of Stripe and Instacart, is leaving Sequoia Capital after 38 years, according to a letter sent to limited partners on Wednesday and viewed by Reuters.
Moritz, 68, will now focus on Sequoia Heritage, a $15 billion wealth management fund that he helped launch in 2010. The fund will be independent from Sequoia Capital, with focus on a diversified range of assets, according to the letter.
A spokesperson for Sequoia Capital confirmed Moritz’s exit and declined to comment on details.
Moritz, one of the most well-know investors in tech, was an early backer and long-running board member at tech companies including Google and PayPal, and once led Sequoia to become one of the most high-profile venture capital firms. It now has more than $53 billion in assets under management in the United States and Europe.
In 2012, Moritz stepped back from the management role at Sequoia, citing health reasons, and has remained a partner at the firm’s seed and growth teams.
Sequoia Heritage is set to become independent as part of a broad organizational shift the firm announced last month, which will also split its Chinese and Indian/Southeast Asian businesses into two independent firms.
Sequoia Capital has been going through a generational transition as partner Roelof Botha took on the firm’s global leadership position in July 2022.
Following Moritz’s exit, Sequoia will over time replace his board seat at high-profile unicorns including Stripe, Klarna and Instacart.
In a statement, Klarna said Moritz will remain a board representative on Sequoia’s behalf and chairman of the board in the foreseeable future.
Economic challenges and geopolitical tensions have made venture capital fundraising and investment difficult, and eaten into global venture funds’ returns. Venture capital funding globally dropped by 48% to $173.9 billion in the first six months of 2023, according to PitchBook data, despite huge interest in artificial intelligence startups sparked by the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Another partner at Sequoia, Mike Vernal, is also in the process of exiting the firm after seven years at the Silicon Valley stalwart, according to a source familiar with the matter.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York, Kanjyik Ghosh and Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Will Dunham)
