Sequoia Capital is a top venture investor in the global Internet. Getting an investment from Sequoia Capital often means becoming a leader in the industry. Recently, Sequoia Capital has begun to rush in the field of cryptocurrency. So looking back in history, what projects has it invested in?
Around 2017, Sequoia Capital participated in the investment of the three largest cryptocurrency companies in China. Including Binance, Bitmain and Huobi, as well as the three most important public chains.
- In March 2014, Huobi received several million U.S. dollars in financing from Sequoia China.
- Sequoia Capital participated in multiple rounds of investment by Bitmain from 2016 to 2018.
- Sequoia Capital tried to participate in Binance’s investment in 2017, but ultimately failed.
In addition, Sequoia Capital has participated in multiple public chain investments, including NEO, Nervos, and Conflux (2018).
Sequoia Capital enters the cryptocurrency industry in a big way
The dispute between Sequoia Capital and Binance has become a historical case in the industry. The impulsive Zhao Changpeng even announced that any projects invested by Sequoia Capital would be strictly reviewed. Bitmain’s delay in IPO has also become a pain point for Sequoia. It is rumored that Shen Nanpeng personally participated in resolving the dispute between the two founders of Bitmain in order to get listed as soon as possible.
As the industry began to turn bearish in 2018, Sequoia Capital, similar to the traditional capital that was enthusiastic in 2017, has begun to lose interest in the crypto industry. It wasn’t until the renewed bull market in 2021 that it began to enter the cryptocurrency industry in a big way.
In January of this year, Sequoia China announced that it had completed its investment in Dragonfly Capital and became its strategic partner. In May of this year, Sequoia China participated in a US$50 million Series A financing of PayPal Financial, a crypto-asset financial service provider.
Sequoia Capital invests in more crypto projects
Around 2021, Sequoia Capital invested in the following encryption projects:
- Exchange FTX
- Animoca Brands (parent company of SANDBOX)
- New social network BitClout
- Crypto asset management platform Coinshift
- DeFi platform Beta Finance
- Video chat platform Gather
- Polkadot Eco DeFi Parallel Finance
- NFT social platform Pulsr
- Ethereum Layer 2 developer StarkWare
- Security company CertiK
- Digital asset custody platform Fireblocks
- Public chain Polygon (not officially announced)
- Decentralized capital market project Clearpool
- NFT platform SubGift based on Polkadot ecology
It should be noted that Sequoia Capital, Sequoia China, and Sequoia Capital India are all differently involved in the above projects. Sequoia Capital is no longer looking for high-quality large companies as it did in the early days. There are also some small and medium-sized companies and projects that have received investment.
On the other hand, in terms of the quality and quantity of investment projects, Sequoia Capital is still far away from the current leading VCs in the crypto industry (such as a16z, multicoin, paradigm, 3ac, coinbase, dcg, binance, etc.). The track is also chaotic. It seems that for the time being, there is no ability to empower projects that the encryption industry values ​​more.