Sequoia Capital growth partner Matt Miller has announced he’s departing the Silicon Valley VC firm after 12 years to strike out on his own and build a Europe-focused venture fund. London-based Miller wrote on X and LinkedIn that he plans to “start my own fund focused on the great founders of Europe”.
“It has been a dream of mine to be an entrepreneur again and I am excited to build something specific for this region that I love.”
Miller moved to London in 2021 to lead the firm’s expansion into Europe.
The longtime VC is known for his bets on UK chipmaker Graphcore, which was acquired by SoftBank for around $600m in July, after what the company admits was a “challenging year”. (It had raised more than $700m before the acquisition.)
Miller also briefly sat on Swedish BNPL titan Klarna’s board, until he was ousted from his newly-assumed seat, while former Sequoia partner Michael Moritz remained in statu. Reports at the time chalked it up to a clash between Klarna’s cofounders or potentially disagreements between Moritz and Miller over shareholder agreement changes (Klarna and Sequoia both declined to comment to Sifted when it was reported).
Miller said that he will have a transition period where he’ll work at Sequoia as a venture partner and serve on his existing boards “while I firm up the specifics of what is to come next.”
Fellow Sequoia partner Luciana Lixandru, who joined the firm as its first Europe-based partner in 2020, commented on X: “Matt, thank you for everything you’ve done for Sequoia! Your passion for the European tech ecosystem is contagious, and I’ve loved working with you for the past four years. I can’t wait to see all the great things you will do going forward!”
Sequoia declined to comment.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/sequoia-matt-miller-departs-news/
