SiliconBeat: Sequoia Capital's romp around the world: Qihoo, Jajah, Sipera & AdBrite

Moritz (photo credit)

Don Valentine, the founding partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, has long been skeptical of investments outside of Silicon Valley, but his younger partners, led by Michael Moritz, are shrugging him off, and are as active as ever -- rampaging from China to Israel, Texas and Europe. Here's the latest:

Sequoia invests in Qihoo, a Chinese Internet search engine -- Sequoia joined CDH Investment and IDG Ventures to invest $20 million into Qihoo, a company that apparently competes with Google and Baidu in China. This is noteworthy since Sequoia is now tied to both Google and Qihoo. Remember, Sequoia partner Michael Moritz faced conflict while on the boards of both Google and Yahoo, and had to leave Yahoo's board to resolve it. Doubt he'll be leaving Google anytime soon.

Sequoia invests in VoIP company, Jajah -- Jajah is run by an Austrian duo (seen at left). Sequoia has brought the legal headquarters of the company back to Sequoia's own digs at Menlo Park.

Sequoia, living up to its aggressive reputation, reportedly takes no more than 20 days to close the deal after the first meeting with founders Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes. Jajah is yet another web-based VoIP service, but with a twist. It works from your PC. You enter the number you want to call on Jajah's Web page. Then you add your own number. Jajah then calls back and puts the call through. It is not free, though. It is merely discounted. So we think the bet here is on the convenience factor.

Note: Jajah's privacy policy gives the startup the right to track your surfing on the web, and share it with a third-party. This is not so convenient.

Sequoia invests in yet another VoIP company -- Surprise, we were just talking about managing conflicts. Well, this time it is Sipera Systems, of Texas. Sequoia joins a couple of other venture firms to invest $13.2 million in the company, which is focused on VoIP security. So at least it is playing in a slightly different area than Jijah, and for that matter, Google, which is also exploring more VoIP options with GoogleTalk, etc.

AdBrite raises $8M more in cash -- The San Francisco-based online advertising company first grabbed our attention with its simplicity: It lets your Web site display a box saying basically "advertise here," and then lets advertisers hook up with you. Sequoia Capital, existing investor, led this second round. As you may recall, Adbrite is run by F***kedCompany.com founder Philip Kaplan.

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the qihoo deal is even more interesting. the chairman of qihoo is zhou hongyi, formerly head of yahoo china (through yahoo's acquisition of his company 3721). and zhou is rumored to have taken the 3721 user data with him to the new company. so sequoia, which is an early yahoo investor, is now an investor in a competitor to yahoo china, run by a guy yahoo fired before his 3 year earnout was done, and who likely misappropriated yahoo china information. welcome to china investing!

niming on March 28, 2006 4:57 AM
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Thanks, niming, for sharing your rumor. So how do we confirm this? You seem to be suggesting Yahoo/3721 can't sue, because it would never hold up in Chinese courts?

Matt Marshall on March 28, 2006 5:15 AM
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Coke dealers all over the city of San Fransico rejoice! Pud's pockets are flush with cash and he's partying like it's 1979.

I got to talk with Pud today and he let me know that the "boys" are definitely back in town. The perverbial ship has just pulled into port. His bathhouse runneth over with steam. What I'm trying to say here people is that Pud leading the Roman helmet march into browntown.

Viva the good life and long live free money and no scruples!

Deep.FC.Insider on April 3, 2006 10:36 PM
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The interesting thing about AdBrite is that nearly all the ads are for somewhat shady businesses. They have only a handful of good sites, and most of the advertisers offer online scams.
"Best Porn Pixels Online"
"Meet hotties tonight"
"Viagra for under $100"

What kind of ads are these? Click on some of these links and your computer fills up with spam and pop-ups.

The owner of Adbrite has been linked to spam-king Sanford Wallace. Google search and you will find the links...

What is worse, is if you actually advertise with adbrite, their terms are NET 90. Yes, 90 days they sit on your commissions and earn the interest/float.

There are better deals out there.

Chef on April 4, 2006 9:19 AM
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