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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 an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, 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

The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a former general partner of Kleiner Perkins.[2] The firm's first two investment vehicles were funded with Khosla's 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]

Investments

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.[11][12]

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.[13]

Khosla Ventures has also made numerous healthcare investments including Guardant Health.[14] Many of Khosla's healthcare investments are based on his belief that artificial intelligence will allow for safer and cheaper healthcare.[15] 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.[16][17] 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.[18] 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.[19]

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

Notable investments include Academia.edu,[20] Berkshire Grey,[21] DoorDash,[22] Faire,[23] Hermeus,[24] Impossible Foods,[25] Instacart,[26] Opendoor,[27] Square,[28] Stripe,[29] Vectra Networks Inc.[30] and Velo3d.[31]

Programs and partnerships

The company was valued at $2.2 billion in 2019.[32] 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.[33] Through a Khosla-backed SPAC, Nextdoor began trading under the ticker KIND in November 2021 with a $4.3 billion valuation. By August 2023 KIND's market cap had fallen to about $810 million.[34]

References

  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. ^ New Billionaire: Todd McKinnon's Cloud Security Company Is Booming As More Americans Work From Home
  12. ^ Ringcentral Net Worth 2011-2021
  13. ^ Gitlab Exceeds IPO Target Price to Raise $801 Million
  14. ^ Two more Peninsula IPOs tell the story of biotech's investment boom
  15. ^ Billionaire investor Vinod Khosla says healthcare's biggest problems can be solved with AI. Here's his vision for 2030's healthcare system
  16. ^ A 23andMe competitor just launched its own cancer testing initiative — but it differs in a key way
  17. ^ 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
  18. ^ "Affirm Holdings prices U.S. IPO above target range, raises $1.2 billion". Reuters. 12 January 2021.
  19. ^ Khosla Ventures has raised a new $1.4 billion fund to back startup winners like DoorDash, Stripe, and Square
  20. ^ Academia.edu Raises $11.1M in Series B Funding
  21. ^ As retail robotics heats up, Berkshire Grey raises $263M
  22. ^ "BRIEF-DoorDash raised $127 million in series C round of financing -..." Reuters. 2016-03-22. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
  23. ^ Online marketplace Faire's $400 mln funding lifts valuation to $12.4 bln
  24. ^ Hypersonic aircraft start-up Hermeus raises $100 million to finish prototype, build out fleet
  25. ^ Loizos, Connie (2015-10-07). "Impossible Foods Raises a Whopping $108 Million For Its Plant-Based Burgers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  26. ^ Why VCs Gave Instacart Another $44 Million
  27. ^ Who made bank in Opendoor’s IPO? $100M for a visitor logbook firm Inbox
  28. ^ On paper, Khosla’s firm could net a massive return on Square IPO
  29. ^ Stripe raises $80 million, pushing payments company's valuation above $1 billion
  30. ^ "Vectra raises $36 million for its AI cybersecurity technology". 2018-02-21. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  31. ^ Velo3D, a supplier of 3D printers to SpaceX, raises $28 million
  32. ^ Bobrowsky, Meghan (8 November 2021). "Nextdoor Surges in Trading Debut". Wall Street Journal.
  33. ^ 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.
  34. ^ "Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. (KIND)". finance.yahoo.com.

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