The University of California endowment has invested over $800 million in Sequoia funds since 2018.
Menlo Park-based Sequoia, founded in 1972, is widely considered to be one of the most successful venture firms of all time, making early bets on Apple, Cisco Systems, PayPal and YouTube. But the data Insider reviewed shows at least so far, investors have lost money in many recent Sequoia funds. These returns provide a rare look at information that is normally a closely guarded secret in the highly opaque world of venture. Unlike many other financial institutions, VC funds are not required to show their returns on investments in startups. The data is current as of June 30, 2022, meaning the actual markdowns are now likely considerably worse, given how muchin the second half of last year.
's venture arm, speaking about venture markdowns in general and not Sequoia specifically."I've heard 60% to 70% markdowns are coming."The ten funds that investors are underwater on include three funds from 2020 focusing on China at both the growth and seed stage. Sequoia 2020 US Growth IX Fund was marked down in value by 5%.