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Roelof Botha

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the South African politician, see Pik Botha.

Roelof Botha
Roelof Botha, September 2010
Born
Roelof Frederik Botha

19 September 1973 (1973-09-19) (age 51)
Pretoria, South Africa
Alma mater
(MBA)
OccupationVenture capitalist
Known for
Relatives

Roelof Frederik Botha (born 19 September 1973)[1] is a South African-American actuary, venture capitalist and company director.

Botha is a partner at Sequoia Capital and as of 2022 sits on the boards of MongoDB,[2] Evernote,[3] Bird,[4] Natera,[5] Square, Unity,[6] and Xoom.[7] He also worked with AssureRX, FutureAdvisor, Instagram, Mixpanel and Mu Sigma.[8] He previously sat on the board of directors of Meebo and YouTube before they were each acquired by Google, Weebly before they were acquired by Square,[9] and Tumblr before they were acquired by Yahoo!.[6] He previously sat on the boards of 23andMe,[10] Eventbrite,[6] Jawbone, Mahalo,[7] Nimbula,[11] Tokbox,[12] and Whisper.[7]

On Forbes' Midas List, an annual ranking of venture capital professionals, he ranked 22nd in 2008,[13] 9th in 2021,[14] and 36th in 2022.[15]

Education and career

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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.[16][17]

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 he left to join Sequoia Capital in January 2003.[18][19][20][21]

At Sequoia, Botha oversaw the firm's investment in YouTube, Instagram, and Square, among others.[22][23] He also helped to plan the acquisition of Xoom by PayPal.[22] In 2017, Botha took over lead responsibility for Sequoia's US operations from Jim Goetz.[24] 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.[25]

Botha has led or co-led Sequoia's investments in several early and growth stage companies. As of 2022, his active investments include Ethos, Evernote, GenEdit, Landis, mmhmm, Pendulum, Skiff, Temporal Technologies, and The Org.[26]

On October 9, 2023, Botha became chairman of the board of directors at Unity Technologies.[27][28][29]

Family

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Botha's father, also named Roelof, is an economist.[20][30] His uncle was the rock musician Piet Botha. His grandfather was Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha,[20] 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 a daughter named Saskia Botha. [31]

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. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Griffith, Erin (28 June 2019). "A Unicorn Lost in the Valley, Evernote Blows Up the 'Fail Fast' Gospel". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Dickey, Megan Rose (3 October 2019). "Bird raises $275 million Series D round at a $2.5 billion valuation". TechCrunch.
  5. ^ Loizos, Connie (26 March 2019). "A new lawsuit involving Stanford and Sequoia Capital highlights fights to come over cell-free DNA testing". TechCrunch.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ a b c Burns, Matt (14 April 2014). "Top Sequoia Capital Partner Roelof Botha To Take The Stage At Disrupt NY 2014". TechCrunch.
  8. ^ Roelof Botha profile. Sequoia Capital.
  9. ^ Davis, Alexander (26 April 2018). "Sequoia Sees $91 Million Payout in Square's Buyout of Weebly". The Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ Primack, Dan (18 September 2024). "23andMe independent board directors resign en masse". Axios.
  11. ^ Morgan, Timothy Prickett (25 June 2010). "Nimbula puffs up 'cloud operating system'". The Register.
  12. ^ Harris, Scott Duke (12 August 2008). "Valley start-ups Meebo, TokBox offer new ways to link people online". The Mercury News.
  13. ^ "#22 Roelof Botha", Forbes.com Midas List 2008, 24 January 2008[dead link‍]
  14. ^ "Roelof Botha". Forbes.
  15. ^ "The Midas List 2022". Forbes. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  16. ^ McBride, Sarah (5 April 2022). "South African Roelof Botha to head US venture capital giant which backed Apple, Airbnb". Bloomberg News – via News24.
  17. ^ "The Art of Selling Out". Forbes. 26 January 2007.
  18. ^ "Roelof Botha". 26 October 2020.
  19. ^ Brown, Erika (12 February 2007). "The Art of Selling Out". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2 February 2007.
  20. ^ a b c McLeod, Duncan (14 December 2007). "Roelef Botha: Hi-tech market mover". Financial Mail. Archived from the original on 23 November 2010.
  21. ^ "Roelof Botha profile". Sequoia Capital. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  22. ^ a b "Roelof Botha". Forbes. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  23. ^ de la Merced, Michael (31 January 2017). "Sequoia Capital Reshuffles Leadership". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Konrad, Alex (4 April 2022). "VC Heavyweight Sequoia Names Roelof Botha As New Global Leader". Forbes. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  26. ^ "Roelof Botha". Sequoia Capital US/Europe. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  27. ^ "Unity Announces Leadership Transition". www.businesswire.com. 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  28. ^ "Unity Software CEO to retire effective immediately". Reuters. 9 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  29. ^ "Unity Technologies - Governance - Board of directors - Person Details". investors.unity.com. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  30. ^ "Famous Faces Bookings - Dr. Roelof Botha". 16 January 2015.
  31. ^ "Asian Art Museum Gala 2021".
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