Kleiner Perkins Pulls in More Than $2 Billion for New Funds
The Silicon Valley firm will look for startups leveraging AI for growth
Ilya Fushman, left, and Mamoon Hamid, partners at Kleiner Perkins.
Photographer: Scott Clark/Upfront Summit/Kleiner Perkins
Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins has raised more than $2 billion in new cash for two new funds.
The Menlo Park, California-based firm has raised $825 million for a new fund targeting young startups, and $1.2 billion for a later-stage fund. Kleiner Perkins plans to invest in startups focusing on a range of industries, including consumer-facing firms, digital health-care companies, fintech and hard tech, meaning ventures working on physical products like semiconductors or robots. In each category, the firm will particularly look for how the startups are using AI.
“AI is an accelerant,” said partner Ilya Fushman. “This is probably one of the biggest accelerants and economic opportunities for tech that’s ever existed.”
The fresh financing comes amid a difficult climate for venture firms trying to raise money. “It’s definitely been one of the slowest windows of time in terms of exits,” Fushman said. Still, despite the volatility, he said startups will be fine “as long as the fundamentals of business remain robust and they continue to grow.”