Khosla Ventures

American venture capital firm

This article contains wording that promotes the subject through exaggeration of unnoteworthy facts. Please help improve it by removing or replacing such wording. (July 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Khosla Ventures

Company type| Private
Industry| Venture capital
Founded| 2004; 20 years ago (2004)
Founder| Vinod Khosla
Headquarters| Menlo Park, California, U.S.
Products| Investments
Total assets| $15 billion (October 2021)
Website| khoslaventures.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

[edit]

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[update], 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 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.[11][12]

## Investments

[edit]

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.[13][14]

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.[15]

Khosla Ventures has also made numerous healthcare investments including Guardant Health.[16] Many of Khosla's healthcare investments are based on his belief that artificial intelligence will allow for safer and cheaper healthcare.[17] 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.[18][19] 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.[20] 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.[21]

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

Notable investments include Academia.edu,[22] Berkshire Grey,[23] DoorDash,[24] Faire,[25] Hermeus,[26] Impossible Foods,[27] Instacart,[28] Opendoor,[29] Square,[30] Stripe,[31] Vectra Networks Inc.[32] and Velo3d.[33]

## Programs and partnerships

[edit]

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.[34] 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.[35]

## References

[edit]

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. ^ Jin, Berber (14 November 2024). "Early OpenAI Investor Khosla Ventures Closes In on $3 Billion for Venture Funds". WSJ.com.
12. ^ Konrad, Alex (9 January 2024). "Keith Rabois Makes A Surprise Return To Khosla Ventures, Five Years After Joining Founders Fund". Forbes.com.
13. ^ New Billionaire: Todd McKinnon's Cloud Security Company Is Booming As More Americans Work From Home
14. ^ Ringcentral Net Worth 2011-2021
15. ^ Gitlab Exceeds IPO Target Price to Raise $801 Million
16. ^ Two more Peninsula IPOs tell the story of biotech's investment boom
17. ^ Billionaire investor Vinod Khosla says healthcare's biggest problems can be solved with AI. Here's his vision for 2030's healthcare system
18. ^ A 23andMe competitor just launched its own cancer testing initiative — but it differs in a key way
19. ^ 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
20. ^ "Affirm Holdings prices U.S. IPO above target range, raises $1.2 billion". Reuters. 12 January 2021.
21. ^ Khosla Ventures has raised a new $1.4 billion fund to back startup winners like DoorDash, Stripe, and Square
22. ^ Academia.edu Raises $11.1M in Series B Funding
23. ^ As retail robotics heats up, Berkshire Grey raises $263M
24. ^ "BRIEF-DoorDash raised $127 million in series C round of financing -..." Reuters. 2016-03-22. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
25. ^ Online marketplace Faire's $400 mln funding lifts valuation to $12.4 bln
26. ^ Hypersonic aircraft start-up Hermeus raises $100 million to finish prototype, build out fleet
27. ^ Loizos, Connie (2015-10-07). "Impossible Foods Raises a Whopping $108 Million For Its Plant-Based Burgers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
28. ^ Why VCs Gave Instacart Another $44 Million
29. ^ Who made bank in Opendoor’s IPO? $100M for a visitor logbook firm Inbox
30. ^ On paper, Khosla’s firm could net a massive return on Square IPO
31. ^ Stripe raises $80 million, pushing payments company's valuation above $1 billion
32. ^ "Vectra raises $36 million for its AI cybersecurity technology". 2018-02-21. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
33. ^ Velo3D, a supplier of 3D printers to SpaceX, raises $28 million
34. ^ 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.
35. ^ "Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. (KIND)". finance.yahoo.com.

* Khosla Ventures Goes Retro for New Blood. New York Times, March 3, 2009
* Venture capital firm embraces green technology. New York Times: Spotlight

## External links

[edit]

* Companies portal

* Company website

* v
* t
* e

Private equity and venture capital

Investment types|

* Buyout
* Leveraged
* Venture
* Mezzanine
* Growth
* Secondaries
* Equity co-investment

History|

* Early history
* 1980s
* 1990s
* 2000s
* 2010s
* 2020s

Terms and
concepts|

| Buyout|

* Financial sponsor
* Management buyout
* Divisional buyout
* Buy–sell agreement
* Leveraged recapitalization
* Dividend recapitalization

|

Venture|

* Angel investor
* Business incubator
* Post-money valuation
* Pre-money valuation
* SAFE
* Seed money
* Startup company
* Venture capital financing
* Venture debt
* Venture round

Structure|

* Private equity firms and funds
* Limited partnership
* Limited liability company
* Carried interest
* Management fee
* Pledge fund
* Publicly traded private equity
* Business Development Company
* Venture capital trust
* Private investment in public equity (PIPE)
* SPAC

Investors|

* Corporations
* Institutional investors
* Pension funds
* Insurance companies
* Fund of funds
* Endowments
* Foundations
* Investment banks
* Merchant banks
* Commercial banks
* High-net-worth individuals
* Family offices
* Sovereign wealth funds
* Crowdfunding

Related
financial terms|

* AUM
* Cap table
* Capital call
* Capital commitment
* Capital structure
* Distribution waterfall
* EBITDA
* Envy ratio
* High-yield debt
* IPO
* IRR
* Leverage
* Liquidation preference
* M&A
* PME
* Taxation of private equity and hedge funds
* Undercapitalization
* Vintage year

* Private equity and venture capital investors
* Private equity firms
* List of private equity firms
* Venture capital firms
* List of venture capital firms
* Angel investors
* Portfolio companies

Authority control databases |

* ISNI

|

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template