Roelof Botha

Roelof Frederik Botha (born 19 September 1973)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0" /> 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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Evernote,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bird,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Natera,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Square, Unity,<ref name=brd2 /> and Xoom.<ref name=brd1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He has worked with AssureRX, FutureAdvisor, Instagram, Mixpanel and Mu Sigma.<ref>Roelof Botha profile Template:Webarchive. Sequoia Capital.</ref> Botha was previously on the boards of Meebo and YouTube before they were each acquired by Google, Weebly before they were acquired by Square,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Tumblr before they were acquired by Yahoo!.<ref name=brd2>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was involved with 23andMe,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Eventbrite,<ref name=brd2 /> Jawbone, Mahalo,<ref name=brd1 /> Nimbula,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tokbox,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Whisper.<ref name=brd1 />

He has historically ranked highly on ForbesTemplate:' annual ranking of venture capitalists, the Midas List. Botha was ranked 22nd in 2008,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 9th in 2021,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 36th in 2022,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and 13th in 2025.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life and education

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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Career

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.<ref name="Protocol">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="20VC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Forbes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="FM">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Sequoia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

At Sequoia Capital, Botha oversaw the firm's investment in YouTube, Instagram, and Block (formerly Square), among others.<ref name="ForbesProfile" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He helped to plan the acquisition of Xoom by PayPal.<ref name="ForbesProfile">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2017, Botha assumed responsibility for Sequoia's U.S. operations from Jim Goetz.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On October 9, 2023, Botha became chairman of the board of directors at Unity Technologies.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In November 2025, Botha resigned from his role as managing partner at Sequoia.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He remains an advisor to the venture capital firm and retained his board positions but was formally succeeded by Alfred Lin and Pat Grady.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Botha's tenure saw to "more than $50 billion in profit [returned to limited partners]".<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":1" />

Personal life

Botha's father, also named Roelof, is an economist.<ref name="FM" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His uncle was the rock musician Piet Botha. His grandfather was Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha,<ref name="FM" /> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• Roelof Botha Bio, Sequoia.