Sequoia says no exits, no problem.
The Silicon Valley titan of venture marked up the value of its 2020 Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture XVII fund by 24.6% in June, at the end of a 12-month period, according to PitchBook, which ran analysis on data from the Regents of the University of California’s endowment.
Sequoia’s markup is notable because the fund has yet to have any exits. This is also a favorable change for a 2020 fund vintage, given the fact that funds from that year aren’t predicted to perform well for any VC after the frothy valuations of 2020 and 2021. The mismatch is likely due to lofty AI valuations giving venture a sense of recovery that hasn’t come to fruition quite yet for other sectors. Sequoia is an investor in buzzy AI companies including: OpenAI, Glean and Harvey, among others.
Sequoia raised more than $800 million for Fund XVII which closed in 2022.