Sequoia ends its Scouts program and Arc accelerator and closes its London office

Sequoia Capital is shutting down Scouts, the program it pioneered around 2009 in which select founders and operators write checks on the firm's behalf, along with Arc, the batch accelerator for pre-seed and seed founders it launched in March 2022. The Menlo Park firm set out the changes in a memo titled "The Sequoia of Tomorrow," posted to X on Wednesday, which also said it has raised about $10 billion in new funds.

The memo says Sequoia is closing its London office, which means several people will leave the firm, and will support European founders from its Bay Area home base. It is merging its early-stage and growth teams into one, flattening the partnership and dropping its Monday partner meeting. "Putting more energy behind fewer people and things means better support for the founders we back," the firm wrote.

Scouts brought the firm some of its best-known deals: Sam Altman brought Stripe to Sequoia as a scout, and early scouts included Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. Arc companies received $500,000 to $1 million up front. Investors have increasingly questioned whether scout networks still pay off, and some, including venture capitalist Sheel Mohnot, expect other firms to close theirs too.