# Cornelius Menke

> Cornelius Menke is a former Partner at Sequoia Capital, where he spent roughly three years building the firm's European investment portfolio from London. A German national educated at the Stockholm School of Economics, Menke moved from management consulting at Boston Consulting Group to venture capital after an earlier stint inside Klarna's CFO office - one of Sequoia's landmark European bets. At Sequoia, he backed companies across industrial automation, AI infrastructure, and enterprise fintech, co-investing in Robco, Tacto, LangChain, Flow, Pennylane, and Rillet while also running the firm's Arc accelerator cohorts for European pre-seed and seed founders. He departed Sequoia in 2025/2026 and his next move remains to be announced.

- **Role:** TBA | Former Partner at Sequoia Capital
- **Organizations:** Sequoia Capital, Boston Consulting Group, Klarna
- **Nationality:** German
- **Education:** Master of Science, International Business, Stockholm School of Economics
- **Known for:** Became Sequoia Capital's fifth partner in Europe, a landmark hire for the firm's European expansion, Co-led investments in Robco, Tacto, LangChain, Rillet, Pennylane, and Flow from Sequoia's European desk, Helped design and run Sequoia Arc for European founders - a 7-week company-building accelerator offering $500K-1M in funding

## Career timeline

- **2017-2018** — Worked in the office of the CFO at Klarna while studying at Stockholm School of Economics - his first exposure to Sequoia Capital as an early European LP portfolio company
- **2018-2022** — Strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group
- **2022** — Joined Sequoia Capital as Partner in London - the firm's fifth hire in Europe
- **2023** — Co-led investments in Robco (manufacturing automation), LangChain (AI application framework), and ran Sequoia Arc cohorts for European pre-seed founders
- **2023** — Co-authored 'Agents on the Brain', 'AI and the Frontier Paradox', and 'Exploring Autonomous Agents' for Sequoia Capital's publication platform
- **2023-2024** — Co-led investment in Tacto (procurement software, €50M Series A co-led with Index Ventures) and Pennylane (European fintech)
- **2024** — Co-invested in Flow (agile hardware manufacturing)
- **2025** — Co-led Sequoia's $25M Series A investment in Rillet, an AI-native ERP platform for finance teams
- **2025-2026** — Departed Sequoia Capital; next move TBA

## Achievements

- Became Sequoia Capital's fifth partner in Europe, a landmark hire for the firm's European expansion
- Co-led investments in Robco, Tacto, LangChain, Rillet, Pennylane, and Flow from Sequoia's European desk
- Helped design and run Sequoia Arc for European founders - a 7-week company-building accelerator offering $500K-1M in funding
- Co-authored multiple high-profile investment theses and technical analyses on AI agents published by Sequoia
- Built an investment thesis around industrial transformation, net-zero goals, and supply chain disruption that predated widespread VC interest in the space

## Latest updates

- **2025-05** — Co-led Sequoia's $25M Series A investment in Rillet, an AI-native ERP company rebuilding the CFO stack from scratch
- **2025-08** — Rillet raised a $70M Series B, bringing total funding to over $100M - validating Menke's Series A conviction
- **2025-2026** — Departed Sequoia Capital; listed as 'Former Partner' with next role to be announced

## Links

- Website: https://sequoiacap.com/people/cornelius-menke/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cornelius-menke-3954a469
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/cornelius_menke

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/cornelius-menke
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-09