Money Grows On This Tree: Top Sequoia-Led Deals Of 2018 So Far

Founded in 1972, Sequoia Capital is one of the best known venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Unsurprisingly, it boasts quite a few high-profile success stories. Its investments have included consumer-facing social media apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Snap, fintech startups like Square, e-commerce brands like Meituan, and enterprise tech like Carbon Black and Dropbox. The firm was also an early lead investor in the widely used software engineering workflow platform Github. After raising $350 million, the company was picked up by Microsoft for $7.5 billion.

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To throw it back even further, Sequoia also led Google’s $25 million Series A in 1999. In other words, the firm has some deep roots.

However, Sequoia does not appear to be slowing down. In late June, Sequoia reportedly closed $6 billion of its growth fund which is targeted to reach $8 billion. Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital China aims to raise about $1.7 billion for another growth-stage fund. And it’s putting that money to work.

According to Crunchbase data, the top 16 deals led by Sequoia in 2018 each brought in $50 million or more. The biggest Sequoia-led deal was a $1.4 billion Series D for Shanghai-based e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, co-led by Tencent. Back in the U.S., Sequoia also joined the well-discussed scooter war in June 2018, leading Bird’s $300 million round.

We’ve gathered the top Sequoia Capital-led deals of 2018 (so far) based on Crunchbase data. Our data includes deals by Sequoia Capital and its regional branches in China and India. The deals were directed to startups ranging from those mentioned above to other China-based startups like real estate startup Ziroom and travel service platform Huangbaoche. Here are the other notable deals that the firm has made so far this year:

Editorial Note: The table has been updated to reflect the $100M Freshworks deal announced July 31, 2018.

iStockPhoto / Katerina Sisperova