Sir Michael Moritz KBE

Sir Michael Moritz is a philanthropist and venture capitalist from Wales. He started out in journalism as a staff writer at Time magazine, before working at Sequoia Capital where he is now Chairman and Partner. Moritz earned a place on the 2007 Time “100” list of most influential people. was named No. 1 venture capitalist on the Forbes Midas List in 2006 and 2007 and named No. 2 in 2008 and 2009. He is currently on the board of multiple companies such as LinkedIn, Green Dot Corporation and PopSugar, and has helped launch some of the most significant technology companies in the past 30 years.

portfolio companies

EXITS

Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles

Data sourced from crunchbase 2023

About Sir Michael Moritz KBE

Overview

Michael Moritz earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Oxford, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Working as a journalist, he covered technology from Silicon Valley and wrote a book about the history of Apple. He became a venture capitalist in the 80s, and founded Technologic Partners, a technology newsletter and conference company. In 1986, Moritz joined Sequoia Capital where he played an instrumental role in the development of major companies, including Google, PayPal, and YouTube.

Moritz has been awarded with multiple honorary fellowships from different universities across the globe, and in 2013 was appointed a KBE for his philanthropic work and for promoting British economic interests. He has donated millions of dollars to the University of Oxford, University of Chicago, and many others, as well as sponsoring five years of the Booker Prize for novelists.

Location

Born in Cardiff, Wales in 1954, Moritz immigrated to the US in 1976. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, American novelist Harriet Heyman, and their two children.

Remarkable Investments

Moritz has invested in multiple high-profile companies including Skyscanner, Yahoo!, eToys and Zappos. His portfolio of current companies includes Getir, Strava, Stripe, Trialspark, and many more, all of which he partnered with between 2003 and 2021 and are in early or growth stages. His enduring companies include Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo! and PayPal, all in IPO or acquired stages.

Michael Moritz in the News

Michael Moritz was listed as one of five Welsh billionaires in The Sunday Times Rich List in 2022, as the richest person from Wales, with a fortune of £4 billion. In March 2022, SportsProMedia.com wrote an article about Moritz backing the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) to encourage companies to develop new health, wellness and medical technology products for consumers involved in triathlons.