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Benchmark (venture capital firm)

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Benchmark
Company typePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1995; 30 years ago (1995)
FounderBob Kagle
Bruce Dunlevie
Andy Rachleff
Kevin Harvey
Val Vaden
Headquarters140 New Montgomery
San Francisco, California, United States
Key people
Peter Fenton, General Partner
Eric Vishria, General Partner
Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner
Victor Lazarte, General Partner
Sarah Tavel, Venture Partner
Websitewww.benchmark.com

Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle,[1] Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff,[2] Kevin Harvey,[3] and Val Vaden.[4] The firm is known for its equal partnership structure[5] and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the first institutional round of funding while taking a board seat with each company it invests in.[2]

Founding, partner structure

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Benchmark was founded in 1995[5] by five partners: Bob Kagle,[1] Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff,[2] Kevin Harvey,[3] and Val Vaden.[4] The firm is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners,[6] where there are no "junior partners" or "senior partners," and there are also no CEO-like position held,[7] differing from other VC firms which are named for their founders and are structured hierarchically.[8] The firm has stated the reason for maintaining this approach is to "force discipline and accountability to focus on what matters" for its founders and limited partners,[2] as their profits are driven by investment performance as opposed to management fees.[5] The collective decision-making structure also means that Benchmark shares responsibility for the performance of the companies the firm invests in, not just the single partner who joins the company's board of directors.[2][5]

Prior partners with the firm include Bill Gurley (who stepped back from his position after serving with the firm for twenty-one years),[9] Mitch Lasky, and Matt Cohler (who each stepped back from their roles as partners after each spending more than a decade with the firm).[10]

Investments

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The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company.[11] In 2011, it invested $12 million for an 11% stake in Uber, worth $7 billion in 2019 and $9.4 billion in 2023.[12]

Benchmark’s first eight funds, raised and invested between 1995 and 2019, returned more than seven and a half times the money invested, net of fees and carry.[5]

The firm has made exits from several companies,[13] including Amplitude,[14] Asana,[15] Confluent,[16] eBay,[11] Elastic,[17] New Relic,[18][19] Nextdoor,[20][21] Red Hat,[22] Snap,[23][24][25] Stitch Fix,[26][27] and Uber.[28][29]

List of investments
Business Source
1-800-Flowers [citation needed]
Airtable [30]
AOL [citation needed]
Art.com/Allposters.com [citation needed]
Benchling [31]
CTERA Networks [citation needed]
Cerebras Systems [32]
Chainalysis [33]
Cockroach Labs [34]
CouchSurfing [35]
Demandforce [citation needed]
Digits [36]
Discord [37]
Duo Security [38]
Domo, Inc. [39][40]
Docker [41]
Dropbox [42]
EBags.com [citation needed]
Friendster [citation needed]
HackerOne [43]
Instagram [44][45]
JAMDAT [citation needed]
Juniper Networks [citation needed]
Marin Software [46]
Metacafe [citation needed]
Minted [citation needed]
Modern Treasury [47]
MySQL [citation needed]
OpenTable [citation needed]
Optimizely [48]
Palm, Inc. [citation needed]
ResearchGate [49]
Seeking Alpha [citation needed]
ServiceSource [citation needed]
Sketch [50]
Solv [51]
Twitter [52]
Tellme Networks [53]
Vessel [54]
WeWork [55][56][57][58]
Xapo [59]
Yelp, Inc. [60]
Zendesk [61]
Zillow [62]
Zipcar [63]
Zuora [64][65]
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Benchmark Capital was featured in the Apple TV+ original TV series WeCrashed starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway. In the show, Anthony Edwards portrays Benchmark co-founder Bruce Dunlevie, who became WeWork's first major investor on the 1st of April in 2012 when Benchmark led WeWork's $17 million Series-A seed funding.[66]

Benchmark was also featured in the Showtime original Super Pumped starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In the series, Kyle Chandler plays former Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley, portraying his involvement in leading Ubers' $11 million round of fundraising in February 2011.[67]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Aragon, Lawrence (July 6, 2020). "Where are they now: Bob Kagle". Venture Capital Journal.
  2. ^ a b c d e Konrad, Alex (June 28, 2024). "Benchmark Is Raising A New $425 Million Fund For The AI Startup Era". Forbes.
  3. ^ a b McCoy, Elin (March 20, 2015). "Venture capitalist bottles California pinots that rival Burgundy". Bloomberg.
  4. ^ a b Meikle, Brad (December 1, 2003). "Vector Capital Goes On WIthout Co-founder". Buyouts Insider.
  5. ^ a b c d e Griffith, Erin (December 13, 2024). "What Is Venture Capital Now Anyway?". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Stross, Randall (December 29, 2009). eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work. Ballantine Books (May 29, 2001). p. 89. ISBN 978-0-345-42889-9.
  7. ^ Konrad, Alex (March 25, 2015). "The Benchmark Way: Five Partners Who Make Other VC Firms Look Outgunned And Overstaffed". Forbes.
  8. ^ Hempel, Jessi (February 11, 2013). "Bill Gurley: The sage of Silicon Valley". Fortune.
  9. ^ Chernova, Yuliya; Winkler, Rolfe (April 22, 2020). "Venture Capitalist Bill Gurley Isn't Joining Benchmark's Next Fund". Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ Primack, Dan (October 1, 2018). "Benchmark raising ninth fund, Cohler and Lasky step back". Axios.
  11. ^ a b "Loans to EBay Provide a Big Payoff for Venture-Capital Firm". The Washington Post. April 9, 1999.
  12. ^ Muoio, Danielle. "The early Uber investor suing Travis Kalanick turned its $12 million investment into $7 billion stake". Business Insider. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  13. ^ Marshall, Matt (January 14, 2011). "Benchmark raises $425M fund — but top firm loses partner who made it famous". Venture Beat.
  14. ^ Ha, Anthony (August 10, 2017). "Amplitude raises another $30M for its product-focused analytics tools". TechCrunch.
  15. ^ Khan, Shariq; Sen, Anirban (August 24, 2020). "Peter Thiel-backed workplace app Asana files for direct listing on NYSE". Reuters.
  16. ^ Lawler, Ryan (November 6, 2014). "Benchmark Backs Real-Time Data Processing Startup Confluent". TechCrunch.
  17. ^ Rao, Leena (November 9, 2012). "Big Data Search And Analytics Startup Elasticsearch Raises $10M From Benchmark". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
  18. ^ Cromwell, Schuberth (December 15, 2014). "Big winners on New Relic, Hortonworks IPOs are mostly Benchmark, Peter Fenton". American City Business Journals.
  19. ^ Rao, Leena (November 16, 2011). "Cloud App Management Platform New Relic Raises $15M From DAG, Benchmark". TechCrunch.
  20. ^ Chapman, Lizette (March 4, 2015). "Valued at $1.1 Billion, Nextdoor's Pivot Appears to Be Paying Off". The Wall Street Journal.
  21. ^ Isaac, Mike (July 24, 2012). "Nextdoor Raises $18.6M From Benchmark, Greylock in First Major Funding Round".
  22. ^ Shankland, Stephen (August 25, 1999). "Benchmark Capital invests in more open-source projects". CNET.
  23. ^ Wortham, Jenna (February 8, 2013). "A Growing App Lets You See It, Then You Don't". The New York Times.
  24. ^ Primack, Dan (June 26, 2013). "Snapchat's liquidity trap – The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blogTerm Sheet". Fortune.
  25. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (February 3, 2017). "Snap IPO Will Mint Fortunes for Founders, Two Big Investors". The Wall Street Journal.
  26. ^ Gannes, Liz (June 9, 2014). "Happy Stitch Fix Investors Pump Another Round Into Personal Shopping Startup". Re/code.
  27. ^ Kucera, Danielle (October 17, 2013). "Stitch Fix Nabs $12 Million From Benchmark to Customize Commerce". Bloomberg.
  28. ^ Helft, Miguel (June 6, 2014). "These are the venture firms celebrating Uber's massive $18B valuation". Fortune.
  29. ^ Arrington, Michael (February 14, 2011). "Huge Vote Of Confidence: Uber Raises $11 Million From Benchmark Capital". TechCrunch.
  30. ^ "Peter Fenton - Forbes Profile".
  31. ^ "Eric Vishria - Forbes Profile".
  32. ^ "Company".
  33. ^ "Bitcoin Tracker Chainalysis Raises $16 Million, Plans to Track 10 More Cryptocurrencies". Fortune. April 5, 2018.
  34. ^ Novet, Jordan (June 4, 2015). "Peter Fenton's latest investment is a database startup called Cockroach". VentureBeat.
  35. ^ "CouchSurfing Raises $7.6 Million in Series A From Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network to Expand Services and Fuel Growth in Cultural Exchange Network" (Press release). PR Newswire. August 25, 2011.
  36. ^ Perez, Sarah (November 6, 2019). "Stealth fintech startup Digits raises $10.5 million Series A from Benchmark and others". TechCrunch.
  37. ^ Takahashi, Dean (February 10, 2015). "Fates Forever mobile game maker Hammer & Chisel raises funding from Benchmark and Tencent". Venture Beat.
  38. ^ Lawler, Ryan (September 22, 2014). "Two-Factor Authentication Startup Duo Security Raises $12 Million From Benchmark". TechCrunch.
  39. ^ Konrad, Alex (April 8, 2015). "Domo Reveals Its Business Software, Raises $200 Million At $2 Billion Valuation". Forbes.
  40. ^ Lacy, Sarah (July 13, 2011). "Series A Whopper: Benchmark Invests $33M in New BI Company Domo". TechCrunch.
  41. ^ Alex, Williams (January 21, 2014). "Docker Raises $15M For Its Open-Source Platform That Helps Developers Build Apps In The Cloud". TechCrunch.
  42. ^ Konrad, Alex. "The Benchmark Way: Five Partners Who Make Other VC Firms Look Outgunned And Overstaffed". Forbes.
  43. ^ Gage, Deborah (May 28, 2014). "HackerOne Emerges With $9 Million to Root Out Software Bugs". The Wall Street Journal.
  44. ^ Indvik, Lauren (February 2, 2011). "Instagram Raises $7 Million, Hits 1.75M Members". Mashable.
  45. ^ Gannes, Liz. "Instagram Raises $7M Led by Benchmark". All Things Digital.
  46. ^ "Benchmark leads series B for marin software". The New York Times. April 7, 2008.
  47. ^ Roof, Katie (December 19, 2019). "Venture Firm Benchmark Invests in Payments Startup as Sector Heats Up". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  48. ^ Ha, Andrew (April 10, 2013). "Website Testing Service Optimizely Raises $28M Round Led By Benchmark, Plans Global Expansion". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  49. ^ "ResearchGate brings in strong funding round for 'scientific Facebook'". The Guardian. September 8, 2010.
  50. ^ Loizos, Connie (March 13, 2019). "Sketch, maker of popular design tools, just landed $20 million in Series A funding from Benchmark in its first outside round". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on March 14, 2019.
  51. ^ "This Startup Wants to Be the OpenTable for Urgent Care". Fortune. April 19, 2017.
  52. ^ Chapman, Lizette (October 4, 2013). "Twitter Investor Benchmark Capital Gets Smaller Taste In Potbelly IPO". The Wall Street Journal.
  53. ^ Festa, Paul (January 2, 2002). "Start-up Tellme grabs $47 million in financing". CNET.
  54. ^ Kafka, Peter (June 24, 2014). "Jason Kilar's New Startup Has a Name, and a Whole Lot of Money". Recode.
  55. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (September 24, 2019). "For WeWork Investor Benchmark, a Struggle to Balance Board Duties with Founder Support". The Wall Street Journal.
  56. ^ "WeWork U-turn reignites SoftBank and Benchmark battle". Financial Times. April 14, 2020.
  57. ^ Alex, Konrad. "Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork". Forbes.
  58. ^ Kosoff, Maya (June 24, 2015). "WeWork, a startup that rents out office space to other startups, may soon be valued at $10 billion". Business Insider.
  59. ^ Rusli, Evelyn (March 13, 2014). "Latest Bitcoin Craze? Actual Bank Vaults". The Wall Street Journal.
  60. ^ Empson, Rip (June 10, 2012). "Twitter, Yelp Board Member Peter Fenton On How Enterprise Is Learning From The Consumer Web". TechCrunch.
  61. ^ Connie, Loizos (July 7, 2015). "Benchmark's Newest Partner, Eric Vishria, On His First Year at the Powerhouse Firm". TechCrunch.
  62. ^ Jackson, Eric. "Interview With Bill Gurley: The Guy Who Backed OpenTable, Yelp, GrubHub, Twitter, Zillow And Uber". Forbes.
  63. ^ Chapman, Lizette (January 2, 2013). "For Venture Firms, Zipcar Purchase a Profitable but Disappointing Exit". The Wall Street Journal.
  64. ^ Schonfeld, Erick (March 13, 2008). "Benchmark and Benioff Put $6.5 Million Into Zuora to Create a Salesforce for Online Billing". TechCrunch.
  65. ^ Rao, Leena (November 15, 2011). "Benchmark, Marissa Mayer Put $5.5M In Stationery Design And Retail Site Minted". TechCrunch.
  66. ^ Gomez, Dessi (March 18, 2022). "'WeCrashed' Cast and Character Guide: Who Plays Who in the WeWork Series? (Photos)". TheWrap. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  67. ^ Clarendon, Dan (February 26, 2022). "The Uber-Complex Battle Behind Showtime's 'Super Pumped'". TV Insider. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
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