Roelof Botha

Roelof Botha
Born	Roelof Frederik Botha 19 9, 1973
Birthplace	Pretoria, South Africa
Nationality	South African, American
Occupation	Venture capitalist
Known for	Managing partner of Sequoia Capital (2022–2025); CFO of PayPal
Education	Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA, 2000)
Awards	Forbes Midas List (multiple years)
Website	[https://www.sequoiacap.com/people/roelof-botha/ Official site]

Roelof Frederik Botha (born 19 September 1973) is a South African-American venture capitalist who served as the managing partner of Sequoia Capital from 2022 to 2025, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms. Before entering venture capital, Botha served as the chief financial officer (CFO) of PayPal, where he helped take the online payments company public in 2002. He joined Sequoia Capital as a partner in 2003 and over the following two decades built an extensive portfolio of investments in technology companies, serving on the boards of firms including MongoDB, Square, Unity, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and 23andMe. Growing up in South Africa during a period of profound political transformation, Botha's trajectory from Pretoria to the upper echelons of Silicon Valley finance represents a career shaped by an early willingness to embrace uncertainty and pursue opportunity across continents. His tenure as Sequoia's leader ended in November 2025 when he stepped aside amid internal leadership concerns, passing the role to partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady.

Early Life

Roelof Frederik Botha was born on 19 September 1973 in Pretoria, South Africa. He grew up during the apartheid era, a period of significant political upheaval and social transformation in the country. His early life in South Africa exposed him to the uncertainties of a nation undergoing fundamental change, an experience that would later inform his approach to risk assessment and decision-making in the world of venture capital.

Botha is a relative of Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, who served as South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs during the apartheid period, and is also related to P. W. Botha, who served as the country's State President from 1984 to 1989. Despite these prominent family connections within South African politics, Botha's career path would take him far from the political sphere and into the world of technology and finance.

As South Africa transitioned to democracy in the 1990s, Botha pursued his education and eventually left the country to study in the United States, joining a broader wave of South African emigrants who sought opportunities abroad during and after the post-apartheid transition. This move to the United States proved to be a defining decision, setting the stage for his subsequent career in Silicon Valley.

Education

Botha studied actuarial science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where he received his undergraduate education. His training in actuarial science provided a strong quantitative foundation that would prove valuable in his later career in corporate finance and venture capital.

After completing his studies in South Africa, Botha moved to the United States to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in 2000. Stanford's location in the heart of Silicon Valley placed Botha at the center of the technology industry during the height of the dot-com bubble, and his time at the business school helped forge connections that would shape his subsequent career in venture capital. His graduation from Stanford in 2000 coincided with a period of extraordinary activity in the technology sector, though the dot-com bust was also beginning to reshape the landscape.

Career

PayPal (2000–2003)

Following his graduation from Stanford in 2000, Botha joined PayPal, the online payments company co-founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, among others. He rose to become the company's chief financial officer (CFO), a role in which he oversaw PayPal's financial operations during a critical period of the company's growth.

As CFO, Botha played a central role in taking PayPal public in 2002. The company's initial public offering (IPO) was a notable event in the technology sector, occurring during a period when relatively few technology companies were going public in the wake of the dot-com bust. Later in 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for approximately $1.5 billion, a transaction that represented one of the significant technology acquisitions of the early 2000s.

Botha's time at PayPal connected him to what became known as the "PayPal Mafia" — a group of former PayPal employees and founders who went on to found or invest in numerous other technology companies, including Tesla, LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp, and Palantir Technologies. This network of relationships proved instrumental in Botha's subsequent venture capital career.

Sequoia Capital: Early Years (2003–2017)

In 2003, Botha joined Sequoia Capital as a partner, transitioning from corporate finance to venture capital. Sequoia Capital, founded by Don Valentine in 1972, had by that time established itself as one of the most prominent venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, with early investments in companies such as Apple, Google, Oracle, and Cisco Systems.

At Sequoia, Botha quickly established himself as an effective investor with an eye for consumer technology and internet-based businesses. Among his early notable investments was YouTube, the video-sharing platform. Sequoia invested in YouTube before it was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, an investment that generated substantial returns for the firm. Botha served on YouTube's board of directors prior to the acquisition.

Over the following years, Botha built a diverse portfolio of technology investments spanning consumer internet, enterprise software, financial technology, and healthcare technology. His board involvement included service on the boards of numerous companies across various stages of growth and development:

• Social media and consumer internet: Botha was involved with Tumblr before its acquisition by Yahoo!, and with Meebo before its acquisition by Google. He also worked with Instagram during its early stages, and was involved with Evernote, the note-taking application, and Whisper, the anonymous social media platform.

• Financial technology: Building on his PayPal background, Botha invested in Square (later renamed Block, Inc.), the payment processing company founded by Jack Dorsey, and Xoom, the digital money transfer service. He also worked with FutureAdvisor, the digital investment advisory service.

• Healthcare and genomics: Botha's portfolio extended into the healthcare sector through investments in 23andMe, the personal genomics company, and Natera, a genetic testing company, where he served on the board of directors.

• Enterprise and data: Botha invested in and joined the board of MongoDB, the database platform company, and was involved with Mu Sigma, the data analytics firm, and Mixpanel, the analytics platform.

• Other ventures: His investments also included Eventbrite, the event management platform; Jawbone, the consumer electronics company; Bird, the electric scooter sharing company; Weebly, the website builder that was later acquired by Square; and Mahalo, the human-powered search engine. He was also involved with Nimbula, the cloud computing company, and TokBox, the video communications platform.

Leadership of U.S. and European Operations (2017–2022)

In January 2017, Sequoia Capital announced a leadership transition in which Botha took over responsibility for the firm's U.S. and European early-stage investment operations. This change came as Jim Goetz, who had been leading those operations, took a step back from day-to-day management of the early-stage business. The New York Times reported on the transition, noting its significance for one of Silicon Valley's most influential investment firms.

During this period, Botha continued to build his investment portfolio while also assuming greater managerial responsibilities within the firm. His role expanded beyond individual deal-making to encompass oversight of the firm's investment strategy and team development across its U.S. and European operations.

Global Managing Partner (2022–2025)

In April 2022, Sequoia Capital named Botha as its global managing partner, placing him at the helm of the entire organization. This appointment came during a period of significant change for the venture capital industry, with technology valuations reaching historic highs before a subsequent market correction.

Botha's tenure as managing partner coincided with several major challenges and structural changes at Sequoia. The firm underwent a significant organizational restructuring during this period, as it separated its U.S./European operations from its China and India/Southeast Asia businesses. The separation of the China fund, which rebranded as HongShan, and the India/Southeast Asia fund, which became Peak XV Partners, represented one of the most consequential organizational changes in Sequoia's history.

Botha's leadership period was also marked by the broader downturn in technology valuations that began in late 2022, which affected many of Sequoia's portfolio companies and the venture capital industry as a whole. The firm navigated a market environment that was significantly different from the growth-at-all-costs era that had characterized the preceding years.

Departure from Leadership

On November 4, 2025, it was announced that Botha would step aside as Sequoia Capital's managing partner. Partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady were named as the firm's new leaders. Multiple news outlets reported that the departure was not entirely voluntary. The Wall Street Journal reported that Sequoia leaders had asked Botha to step aside amid leadership concerns and a turbulent stretch for the firm.

The Financial Times reported that Botha was "pushed out by top lieutenants" who had lost confidence in his ability to lead the firm, describing his management style as "imperial." Forbes reported the departure amid what it described as the firm's "cultural reckoning," noting that the transition came after a period of internal tensions within the organization.

The Venture Capital Journal characterized Botha's tenure as "tumultuous," noting the numerous structural and market challenges the firm had faced during his leadership. Fortune described Botha as having served "nearly a decade at the helm," counting his years leading the U.S. and European operations from 2017 alongside his formal tenure as global managing partner from 2022.

Despite his departure from the firm's leadership position, Botha remained active in discussions about the technology investment landscape. In November 2025, shortly after stepping down, he publicly stated that SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace company, had a "bigger chance of being the most valuable company" than OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company.

Board Service

Throughout his career, Botha served on the boards of directors of numerous public and private technology companies. As of 2022, his active board directorships included MongoDB, Evernote, Bird, Natera, Square, Unity, and Xoom.

In October 2023, Unity Technologies announced a leadership transition, with Botha involved in the company's governance during the period.

Botha's previous board service included YouTube (prior to its acquisition by Google in 2006), Meebo (prior to its acquisition by Google), Weebly (prior to its acquisition by Square), and Tumblr (prior to its acquisition by Yahoo!).

Personal Life

Botha holds both South African and American citizenship. He relocated from South Africa to the United States to attend Stanford Graduate School of Business, and subsequently built his career in Silicon Valley.

A profile in the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad noted Botha's relatively modest public persona despite his prominence in the venture capital industry, describing him as remaining understated about his business activities.

Stanford Graduate School of Business has profiled Botha as an alumnus, noting that his life has been shaped by a willingness to "embrace uncertainty and pursue possibility," from growing up in South Africa during its political transformation to building a career in one of the most volatile sectors of the global economy.

Recognition

Botha has been a regular presence on the Forbes Midas List, an annual ranking of the top technology investors published by Forbes magazine. He was ranked 22nd on the Midas List in 2008, reflecting his early success at Sequoia Capital with investments such as YouTube. His ranking improved to 9th in 2021, reflecting the strong performance of several of his portfolio companies during the technology boom of the late 2010s and early 2020s. He was ranked 36th in 2022 and returned to 13th in 2025.

Forbes has maintained a profile of Botha as part of its coverage of influential figures in venture capital and technology investment.

His consistent presence on the Midas List over nearly two decades reflects the breadth and longevity of his investment portfolio, which has included companies across consumer technology, enterprise software, financial technology, healthcare, and other sectors.

Legacy

Botha's career at Sequoia Capital spanned more than two decades and encompassed a period of profound transformation in the technology industry and in the venture capital business model itself. His investment portfolio included companies that became some of the most widely used technology platforms in the world, including YouTube, Instagram, and Square.

His tenure as Sequoia's managing partner from 2022 to 2025, while ending under difficult circumstances, coincided with a period of significant structural change at the firm, including the separation of its global operations into independent entities. These changes reflected broader shifts in the geopolitical landscape that affected how global venture capital firms organized their operations, particularly with respect to U.S.-China relations.

Botha's trajectory from South Africa to the top of Silicon Valley's venture capital industry also placed him among a notable group of South African-born technology executives and investors who have had significant impact on the global technology sector. His career path — from actuarial science at the University of Cape Town, to Stanford Business School, to PayPal's CFO suite, to the leadership of Sequoia Capital — illustrated how the Silicon Valley ecosystem drew talent from around the world during the technology industry's period of rapid global expansion in the early 21st century.

The circumstances of his departure from Sequoia's leadership in 2025, as reported by multiple major financial publications, highlighted the challenges of managing one of Silicon Valley's most prominent investment firms during a period of market volatility, geopolitical complexity, and internal cultural pressures.