Roelof Botha

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For his grandfather, the South African politician, see Pik Botha.

Roelof Botha
Botha in 2025
Born
Roelof Frederik Botha

19 September 1973 (1973-09-19) (age 52)
Pretoria, South Africa
Alma mater
(MBA)
OccupationVenture capitalist
Known for
Relatives

Roelof Frederik Botha (born 19 September 1973)[1][2] is a South African-American venture capitalist. He served as the managing partner of Sequoia Capital from 2022 to 2025. He joined the firm in 2003 as a partner, later taking over their U.S. and European early-stage investment franchises in 2017. Botha was the chief financial officer (CFO) of PayPal from 2000 to 2003, taking the company public in 2002.

Botha has influenced a variety of private and public American companies since the early 2000s. His involvement as a board director, as of 2022, has spanned MongoDB,[3] Evernote,[4] Bird,[5] Natera,[6] Square, Unity,[7] and Xoom.[8] He has worked with AssureRX, FutureAdvisor, Instagram, Mixpanel and Mu Sigma.[9] Botha was previously on the boards of Meebo and YouTube before they were each acquired by Google, Weebly before they were acquired by Square,[10] and Tumblr before they were acquired by Yahoo!.[7] He was involved with 23andMe,[11] Eventbrite,[7] Jawbone, Mahalo,[8] Nimbula,[12] Tokbox,[13] and Whisper.[8]

He has historically ranked highly on Forbes' annual ranking of venture capitalists, the Midas List. Botha was ranked 22nd in 2008,[14] 9th in 2021,[15] 36th in 2022,[16] and 13th in 2025.[17]

Early life and education

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Botha was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and at the age of six he moved to Cape Town with his parents. He was raised in Hout Bay, a suburb of Cape Town, and attended Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck. Botha earned a BSc in Actuarial Science, Economics, and Statistics from the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1996. He worked as a business analyst at McKinsey & Co. in Johannesburg from 1996 through 1998. He then moved to the United States, where he received an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.[2][18]

Career

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In 2000, prior to his graduation from Stanford, Botha became director of corporate development for PayPal. He moved on to vice-president of finance and was named CFO in September 2001. PayPal went public in February 2002, and was purchased by eBay in October 2002. Meg Whitman offered Botha the opportunity to stay on as CFO post-acquisition, but venture capitalist Michael Moritz, who had invested in PayPal and served as a board member, offered him a partnership, which he accepted in January 2003.[19][20][21][22][23]

At Sequoia Capital, Botha oversaw the firm's investment in YouTube, Instagram, and Block (formerly Square), among others.[24][25] He helped to plan the acquisition of Xoom by PayPal.[24] In 2017, Botha assumed responsibility for Sequoia's U.S. operations from Jim Goetz.[26] In April 2022, Sequoia announced that, starting in July 2022, Botha would replace Doug Leone as Senior Steward of Sequoia's global brand and operations.[27]

Botha has led or co-led Sequoia's investments in several early and growth stage companies. As of 2022, his active investments include Ethos Technologies, Evernote, GenEdit, Landis, mmhmm, Pendulum, Skiff, Temporal Technologies, and The Org.[28] On October 9, 2023, Botha became chairman of the board of directors at Unity Technologies.[29][30][31]

In November 2025, Botha resigned from his role as managing partner at Sequoia.[32] He remains an advisor to the venture capital firm and retained his board positions but was formally succeeded by Alfred Lin and Pat Grady.[33] Botha's tenure saw to "more than $50 billion in profit [returned to limited partners]".[32] The Wall Street Journal reported that Sequoia's partners challenged Botha's leadership style as well as his handling of the firm's Chinese investment business spin-off.[32]

Personal life

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Botha's father, also named Roelof, is an economist.[22][34] His uncle was the rock musician Piet Botha. His grandfather was Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha,[22] a South African politician who served as the country's last foreign minister under the Apartheid government, and the first Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs under Nelson Mandela. Roelof is married to Huifen Chan and they have two children.[35]

References

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  1. ^ Bouma, Hilda (12 April 2022). "'Boere Billionaire' Botha van Sequoia is van het stemmetje af" ['Boere Billionaire' Botha from Sequoia has lost his voice]. Het Financieele Dagblad (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 13 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b McBride, Sarah (5 April 2022). "South African Roelof Botha to head US venture capital giant which backed Apple, Airbnb". Bloomberg News – via News24.
  3. ^ Lev-Ram, Michal (25 July 2024). "Sequoia Capital invested early in Google, Nvidia, and Apple. Can Roelof Botha keep the legendary venture capital firm ahead in the AI future?". Fortune.
  4. ^ Griffith, Erin (28 June 2019). "A Unicorn Lost in the Valley, Evernote Blows Up the 'Fail Fast' Gospel". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Dickey, Megan Rose (3 October 2019). "Bird raises $275 million Series D round at a $2.5 billion valuation". TechCrunch.
  6. ^ Loizos, Connie (26 March 2019). "A new lawsuit involving Stanford and Sequoia Capital highlights fights to come over cell-free DNA testing". TechCrunch.
  7. ^ a b c Kincaid, Jason (24 May 2011). "Sequoia's Roelof Botha: R.I.P. Good Times Was No Mistake (And Yes, They Do Read Their Email)". TechCrunch.
  8. ^ a b c Burns, Matt (14 April 2014). "Top Sequoia Capital Partner Roelof Botha To Take The Stage At Disrupt NY 2014". TechCrunch.
  9. ^ Roelof Botha profile Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Sequoia Capital.
  10. ^ Davis, Alexander (26 April 2018). "Sequoia Sees $91 Million Payout in Square's Buyout of Weebly". The Wall Street Journal.
  11. ^ Primack, Dan (18 September 2024). "23andMe independent board directors resign en masse". Axios.
  12. ^ Morgan, Timothy Prickett (25 June 2010). "Nimbula puffs up 'cloud operating system'". The Register.
  13. ^ Harris, Scott Duke (12 August 2008). "Valley start-ups Meebo, TokBox offer new ways to link people online". The Mercury News.
  14. ^ "The Midas List: #26 Roelof Botha". Forbes. 29 January 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
  15. ^ "Roelof Botha". Forbes.
  16. ^ "The Midas List 2022". Forbes. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  17. ^ "The Midas List: #13 Roelof Botha". Forbes. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  18. ^ "The Art of Selling Out". Forbes. 26 January 2007.
  19. ^ Carson, Biz (8 February 2022). "Sequoia's invisible hand: How Roelof Botha became one of the most powerful people in venture capital". Protocol. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
  20. ^ "Roelof Botha". 26 October 2020.
  21. ^ Brown, Erika (12 February 2007). "The Art of Selling Out". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2 February 2007.
  22. ^ a b c McLeod, Duncan (14 December 2007). "Roelef Botha: Hi-tech market mover". Financial Mail. Archived from the original on 23 November 2010.
  23. ^ "Roelof Botha profile". Sequoia Capital. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  24. ^ a b "Roelof Botha". Forbes. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  25. ^ de la Merced, Michael (31 January 2017). "Sequoia Capital Reshuffles Leadership". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  26. ^ Loizos, Connie (31 January 2017). "Sequoia Capital has quietly announced a leadership change-up, with partner Jim Goetz taking a step back". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  27. ^ Konrad, Alex (4 April 2022). "VC Heavyweight Sequoia Names Roelof Botha As New Global Leader". Forbes. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  28. ^ "Roelof Botha". Sequoia Capital US/Europe. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  29. ^ "Unity Announces Leadership Transition". www.businesswire.com. 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  30. ^ "Unity Software CEO to retire effective immediately". Reuters. 9 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  31. ^ "Unity Technologies - Governance - Board of directors - Person Details". investors.unity.com. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  32. ^ a b c Jin, Peter Rudegeair and Berber (4 November 2025). "Sequoia Capital Leader Exits in VC Shake-Up". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  33. ^ Hammond, George (4 November 2025). "Sequoia chief Roelof Botha steps down from Silicon Valley venture firm". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
  34. ^ "Famous Faces Bookings - Dr. Roelof Botha". 16 January 2015.
  35. ^ "Asian Art Museum Gala 2021".
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