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Khosla Ventures

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Khosla Ventures
Company typePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
Founded2004; 20 years ago (2004)
FounderVinod Khosla
HeadquartersMenlo Park, California, U.S.
ProductsInvestments
Total assets$15 billion (October 2021)
Websitekhoslaventures.com

Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successful investments include Affirm, DoorDash, Square, Impossible Foods, Instacart, and OpenAI.[1]

History

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The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a former general partner of Kleiner Perkins.[2] Khosla Ventures first two investment vehicles were funded with his own personal capital and were not open to institutional investors. In March 2009, Pierre Lamond became General Partner.[3] In December 2009, Khosla completed fundraising for two new funds, to invest in cleantech and information technology start-ups.

Khosla Ventures Fund III secured $1 billion of investor commitments to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla also raised $300 million for Khosla Seed, which will invest in higher-risk opportunities and science experiments.[4] The firm has invested in bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, wind, battery, engines, LED, HVAC efficiency and other environmentally friendly technologies.[5][6]

As of October 2015, Khosla Ventures was one of the five largest and most active investors in the space sector, which has had over US$10 billion of private capital invested in it since 2005.[7]

In September 2017, Khosla Ventures had about $5 billion in assets under management.[8]

In October 2021, Khosla Ventures announced that it had raised $1.4 billion in funding to invest in early-to-late stage startups, breaking down to $400 million for seed deals and $1 billion for later-stage companies. The fund has incubated several companies including QuantumScape and NextVivo.[9]

In January 2022, Khosla Ventures raised $557 million in its first opportunity fund.[10]

The firm ranked first in the "Founder's Choice VC" list of more than 200 venture capital firms in 2023.[11]

The firm closed $3.1 billion in new capital across three funds as of November 2023 including $1 billion for later-stage companies, $500 million for seed-stage companies and $1.6 billion for its eighth flagship fund. It was the largest fundraiser by a venture capital firm that year. Khosla Ventures stated that the funding would be used for nuclear fusion, humanoid robots and artificial intelligence to support industries such as healthcare and transportation. In February 2024, Keith Rabois returned to the firm as a managing director.[12][13]

Investments

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Khosla Ventures has invested in several enterprise companies including Okta, valued at $27 billion as of August 2020, RingCentral, valued at $23.5 billion as of May 2021, along with others including Nutanix, ThoughtSpot and Rubrik. Khosla investments into transportation include Hermeus, Waabi, and Glydways.[14][15]

In October 2021, DevOps platform provider GitLab raised $801 million in its initial public offering. Khosla Ventures led the seed round in 2015 and reportedly made more than 150 times return on its investment.[16]

Khosla Ventures has also made numerous healthcare investments including Guardant Health.[17] Many of Khosla's healthcare investments are based on his belief that artificial intelligence will allow for safer and cheaper healthcare.[18] The companies include Color Genomics, a genetic testing service, Oscar Health, a tech enabled health insurance, Sword Health, which provides virtual MSK care, and Cellino which is known for its drug discovery.[19][20] Khosla Ventures was the first venture capital investor of Impossible Foods, investing $3 million in 2011.[citation needed]

Affirm, a financial technology company, raised $1.2 billion in its initial public offering, which was the largest U.S. filing of the year to date. The firm was its first venture capital investor.[21] In October 2021, Khosla Ventures announced that it had raised $1.4 billion in funding to invest in early-to-late stage startups breaking down to $400 million for seed deals and $1 billion for later-stage companies.[22]

Khosla Ventures is also known for being the first investors in the corporate entity of OpenAI.

Notable investments include Academia.edu,[23] Berkshire Grey,[24] DoorDash,[25] Faire,[26] Hermeus,[27] Impossible Foods,[28] Instacart,[29] Opendoor,[30] Square,[31] Stripe,[32] Vectra Networks Inc.,[33] Velo3d,[34] and Profound.[35][36]

Programs and partnerships

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In February 2021, Khosla Ventures filed plans for the public offerings of three special-purpose acquisition companies (SPAC), which intend to raise a total of $1.2 billion for the purpose of acquiring and taking public three private companies.[37]

Through a Khosla-backed SPAC, Nextdoor, trading under the ticker KIND, had its initial public offering in November 2021 with a $4.3 billion valuation. By August 2023 KIND's market cap had fallen to about $810 million.[38] Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. announced that it would close business in December 2023.[39]

References

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  1. ^ Lacy, Sarah (July 3, 2009). "Vinod Khosla, Risk Junkie". TechCrunch.
  2. ^ "Khosla Ventures Founder Vinod Khosla Joins Slush 2017 - Slush 2017". Slush 2017. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2018-01-07.
  3. ^ Marshall, Matt (3 March 2009). "Pierre Lamond, the VC who scared the YouTube guys, joins Khosla". VentureBeat. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  4. ^ Khosla Ventures piles up $1 billion for green tech. cnet news, September 1, 2009
  5. ^ Venture Firm’s ‘Green’ Funds Top $1 Billion. New York Times, August 31, 2009
  6. ^ Wauters, Robin (May 19, 2011). "Khosla Ventures Is Raising, Like, A Billion Dollars". TechCrunch.
  7. ^ Nordrum, Amy (2015-10-09). "Space Advocate Makes Business Case For Private Company Exploration Of Extraterrestrial Resources". International Business Times. Retrieved 2015-10-10.
  8. ^ Kolodny, Lora (2017-09-07). "Khosla Ventures adds women to investment team — Simmons and Gulati". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  9. ^ Cheng, Candy. "Khosla Ventures has raised a new $1.4 billion fund to back startup winners like DoorDash, Stripe, and Square". Business Insider. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  10. ^ Exclusive: Khosla Ventures raises its first opportunities fund
  11. ^ "Founder's Choice VC Leaderboard".
  12. ^ Jin, Berber (14 November 2024). "Early OpenAI Investor Khosla Ventures Closes In on $3 Billion for Venture Funds". WSJ.com.
  13. ^ Konrad, Alex (9 January 2024). "Keith Rabois Makes A Surprise Return To Khosla Ventures, Five Years After Joining Founders Fund". Forbes.com.
  14. ^ New Billionaire: Todd McKinnon's Cloud Security Company Is Booming As More Americans Work From Home
  15. ^ Ringcentral Net Worth 2011-2021
  16. ^ Gitlab Exceeds IPO Target Price to Raise $801 Million
  17. ^ Two more Peninsula IPOs tell the story of biotech's investment boom
  18. ^ Billionaire investor Vinod Khosla says healthcare's biggest problems can be solved with AI. Here's his vision for 2030's healthcare system
  19. ^ A 23andMe competitor just launched its own cancer testing initiative — but it differs in a key way
  20. ^ Josh Kushner stands to make a mint on Oscar Health's much-awaited IPO, and has almost total control. Here are the venture investors who will also do well
  21. ^ "Affirm Holdings prices U.S. IPO above target range, raises $1.2 billion". Reuters. 12 January 2021.
  22. ^ Khosla Ventures has raised a new $1.4 billion fund to back startup winners like DoorDash, Stripe, and Square
  23. ^ Academia.edu Raises $11.1M in Series B Funding
  24. ^ As retail robotics heats up, Berkshire Grey raises $263M
  25. ^ "BRIEF-DoorDash raised $127 million in series C round of financing -..." Reuters. 2016-03-22. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
  26. ^ Online marketplace Faire's $400 mln funding lifts valuation to $12.4 bln
  27. ^ Hypersonic aircraft start-up Hermeus raises $100 million to finish prototype, build out fleet
  28. ^ Loizos, Connie (2015-10-07). "Impossible Foods Raises a Whopping $108 Million For Its Plant-Based Burgers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  29. ^ Why VCs Gave Instacart Another $44 Million
  30. ^ Who made bank in Opendoor’s IPO? $100M for a visitor logbook firm Inbox
  31. ^ On paper, Khosla’s firm could net a massive return on Square IPO
  32. ^ Stripe raises $80 million, pushing payments company's valuation above $1 billion
  33. ^ "Vectra raises $36 million for its AI cybersecurity technology". 2018-02-21. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  34. ^ Velo3D, a supplier of 3D printers to SpaceX, raises $28 million
  35. ^ Ostwal, Trishla (2024-08-13). "Profound Raises $3.5M to Manage Brands' AI Search Presence". Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  36. ^ "Profound closes $3.5 million seed round to pioneer AI Optimization - Profound Blog". Profound. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  37. ^ Schubarth, Cromwell (13 February 2021). "Khosla Ventures gets into the SPAC boom with plans to raise $1.2B in 3 IPOs". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  38. ^ "Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. (KIND)". finance.yahoo.com.
  39. ^ "Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. Announces Redemption of Public Shares and Subsequent Dissolution". PR Newswire. 4 December 2023.
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