Menlo Ventures Closes Largest Raise in 50-Year History
In June, Menlo Ventures announced $3 billion in new capital across two funds. Menlo Ventures XVII will invest primarily in seed and Series A companies. Menlo Inflection IV will provide growth capital to startups at Series B and beyond. The new funds target companies throughout the AI market, from foundational models and infrastructure to enterprise, healthcare and consumer applications.
AI Portfolio Highlights
Anthropic has become the most prominent company in Menlo’s AI portfolio. The firm first invested in the AI model developer in 2023 and has added to its investment in later rounds. Menlo’s other AI investments include Lovable, Suno, OpenRouter, Wispr, Fireworks AI, Modal, Skild AI and Goodfire. Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo since 2015, has led the firm’s investments in Anthropic, Lovable, OpenRouter, Harness, Semgrep and Legora.
Investment Approach and Concentration
Menlo has invested $100 million in companies including Lovable and Suno. The firm first invested in Anthropic in the Series C round and led the Series D round, which was the largest investment the firm had ever made at the time. Menlo Ventures XVII and Menlo Inflection IV give the firm flexibility to back companies from formation through later rounds that can require hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Crunchbase News.
Murphy previously spent 15 years as a general partner at Kleiner Perkins, where he was an observer at Google from the firm’s initial investment through its IPO and helped launch the $200 million iFund with Apple. Menlo was previously known for investments in Uber, Roku and Siri.
The new capital allows Menlo to pursue a barbell strategy with more aggressive stage and capital commitments for select AI companies while maintaining high bars in overfunded categories, according to Crunchbase News.
