What a time to be live. The main thing happening today is Sequoia closing its London office. Live from 12 GMT. Here's your Order of Play.
12:30 PM - Charles Tenot, CEO at Lemlist
12:45 PM - John Burn-Murdoch, Chief Data Officer at Financial Times
1:00 PM - Joëlle Pineau, Chief AI Officer at Cohere
What’s Happening Today
Sequoia is closing its London office.
The closure was announced yesterday, just six years after the office opened. The London operation was initially led by Luciana Lixandru, a former Accel investor, and had six investment partners by 2023.
Sequoia, an early backer of Apple, Airbnb and Stripe, explained the decision in a blog post marking a year since its leadership transition. "We simply don't see the need for a local presence," the firm wrote. It said the closure was not a reflection of its London team and that it believes Europe will continue to produce outlier founders and companies. Sequoia says it can keep supporting them from its home base in the Bay Area.
The closure is part of a wider overhaul at Sequoia. The firm has simplified its Sequoia Capital Fund, ended its Arc accelerator and Scouts programmes, and removed the distinction between its early and growth teams. The changes come despite Sequoia raising approximately $10 billion in new funds. "Our objective function is not scale, but quality," it said.
Sequoia's retreat follows a rise in venture capital investment in the UK. British startups raised $23.7 billion in 2025, up 33% on 2024. London accounted for almost three quarters of the total and overtook Paris in global tech rankings earlier this year. Foreign capital made up 74% of UK funding that year.
etn. Insight
Sir Nick Clegg, General Partner at HIRO Capital and former UK Deputy PM, argued that tech leaders shouldn't be weighing in on every corner of society without being accountable to anyone.
He acknowledged that Dario Amodei is "a super smart guy", but said "he's not a labour market economist." He also questioned why people listen to David Sacks on how to end the war in Ukraine or to Marc Andreessen on how to raise children. "These people don't know, and they weren't elected by anyone either."
Clegg also said he has an "almost visceral reaction" to people gaining "vast, vast amounts of wealth and power" from this technology, then offering everyone else "a little daily stipend to grow vegetables in the garden and write poetry during the day."
Watch the full clip below.
Continental Breakfast
