Last year, when Sequoia Capital China was raising $9bn to invest in start-ups in the country, Helen Huang, a private equity investor at MassPRIM, which manages $100bn in pensions for Massachusetts state employees and teachers, was among those interested in backing the venture capital group. Huang recommended investing $150mn into Sequoia China, praising the firm’s ability to interpret “the signals from policymaking and regulations”. All nine members of MassPRIM’s board present voted for the deal. However, just over a year later, the deteriorating trade relations between the US and China have caused Sequoia to split up, with its US and European operations separated from its China arm, which is managed by Neil Shen, a renowned investor who has made early investments in Alibaba and ByteDance. The Indian and Southeast Asian businesses of Sequoia will form a third separate entity.
Sequoia’s Venture Capital Empire Crumbles Due to Heightened US-China Tensions
