Roelof Botha, Managing Partner, Sequoia Capital, attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

(Reuters) -Roelof Botha will step down as the managing partner at Sequoia Capital after a little more than three years in the role, the storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm said on Tuesday.

Botha, who spearheaded Sequoia's investments in Meta Platforms' Instagram, biotech firm 23andMe and software firm MongoDB , had joined the investment firm in 2003.

Investing veterans Alfred Lin and Pat Grady will become the company's new stewards, according to a letter from Botha posted on X on Tuesday.

Botha will transition into a new role of advising the partnership and will continue to represent Sequoia on the boards of portfolio companies.

Botha first became a steward of the Sequoia Partnership in 2017 when he led the U.S. and European business for Sequoia, before stepping up to manage the firm’s global operations.

Under the South African executive’s tenure, Sequoia split off its Chinese and Indian/Southeast Asian businesses into two independent firms in 2023, as it tries to navigate economic and geopolitical challenges.

"I am confident that Sequoia's ethos will endure and that the deep bench of talent at Sequoia will thrive under Pat and Alfred's leadership," Botha said in the letter.

Lin has co-headed the venture capital firm's early-stage business since 2017 and Grady has led Sequoia's growth-stage business since 2015.

Sequoia, founded in 1972, was an early investor in many top tech names including Alphabet's Google and YouTube, Apple and Cisco <CSCO.O>.

Venture funding has seen an uptick in 2025 amid the AI frenzy set off by ChatGPT, with global venture funding rising 38% year-on-year to $97 billion in the third quarter.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in San Francisco; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Leslie Adler)