Former Sequoia associate Matt Miller has already locked in $355 million for his new VC agency, Evantic, which can also be backed by Sequoia, TechCrunch discovered.
Final December, Miller introduced his departure from Sequoia after 12 years to “begin [his] personal fund centered on the good founders of Europe.”
Regardless of the European focus, TechCrunch’s understanding is that Evantic will truly make investments on either side of the Atlantic, with a give attention to B2B corporations on the Sequence B and progress phases. Nevertheless, its actions can be carried out from London, the place Miller moved from California in 2021.
Earlier than transferring to the U.Okay., Miller had already spearheaded Sequoia’s enlargement into Europe and ultimately joined Sequoia’s European workplace in London, the place he labored alongside its first native rent, Luciana Lixandru, who stays there.
Sequoia on Monday declined to touch upon Miller or the brand new fund. TechCrunch has additionally reached out to Miller instantly.
Miller’s fundraising has exceeded expectations. Preliminary studies indicated that he was elevating $300 million for this new enterprise. Sources near the matter now corroborate the Monetary Occasions’ newer report that the goal is $400 million and that Sequoia is collaborating as a restricted associate. TechCrunch has reached out to Sequoia for affirmation.
Particularly, Miller’s new agency has secured $350 million from exterior sources, per a U.S. regulatory submitting; Evantic has additionally acquired $5 million in inner commitments and is within the means of closing the remaining $45 million from founders and different members of the startup ecosystem, sources inform TechCrunch.
Miller’s departure seems to stem primarily from a failed energy play at portfolio firm Klarna. Not lengthy earlier than asserting his exit, Miller had reportedly tried and did not oust former colleague Michael Moritz from the board of the purchase now, pay later behemoth. Sequoia quickly after apologized for supporting the try and gave Miller’s board seat to a different associate.
On the identical time, broader tensions have been surfacing inside Sequoia over associate Shaun Maguire, whose political opinions have confirmed divisive each internally and amongst portfolio founders. Wunderlist founder Christian Reber, one of many first Sequoia-backed founders in Europe, expressed his disagreement again in January with Maguire over the German far-right get together AfD. Miller and Lixandru additionally distanced themselves from the views supported by Maguire, who has since then made extra controversial feedback.
Regardless of the Klarna incident, Miller seems to keep up good relations with Sequoia, as evidenced by the agency’s participation as an LP in his new enterprise. Miller additionally stays a enterprise associate at Sequoia and continues to symbolize the agency on a number of boards.
Throughout his time at Sequoia, Miller labored carefully with corporations, together with Confluent, dbt Labs, Docker, Grafana, Graphcore, Hex, and Tessian. He additionally overlapped with longtime Sequoia worker Spencer Hemphill, who left earlier than Miller did and is now reportedly Evantic’s CFO.
Whereas technically a U.S. fund, Evantic will now be a part of the ranks of cross-Atlantic enterprise corporations, together with Index Ventures and Northzone, the latter of which mentioned it was “doubling down on the transatlantic.” It is going to even be related in measurement to the $348 million that the Norrsken Basis, established by Klarna’s founder, is at the moment investing in European startups that use “AI for good.”
