Many venture capital firms are struggling to attract new capital from their own backers in a lukewarm IPO environment.
But established, branded companies are still able to raise significant funds.
On Friday, Kleiner Perkins announced that it had closed more than $2 billion in new capital on two funds, a slight increase compared to the 52-year-old company $1.8 billion previously fundraising in early 2022.
Other prominent firms that have successfully defied the venture fundraising slump this year include Andreessen Horowitz, which secured $7.2 billion for several of its funds, General Catalyst which is in the process of concluding a fundraising of 6 billion dollars and Norwest with its $3 billion in capital raised.
Kleiner Perkins said in a blog post that it would continue to invest in enterprise, consumer, healthcare, fintech and hardtech software startups, as it did with its previous fund. But what has changed is the ability to make these industries more efficient with AI.
The firm has already backed a few dynamic AI startups, including business application search tool Glean and Harvey, an AI assistant for lawyers. However, compared to other large venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins’ investments in large AI companies remain modest.
Founded in 1972, Kleiner Perkins was once considered one of Silicon Valley’s most elite companies. It was an early backer of companies like Amazon, Compaq Computer, Genetech, Netscape and Sun Microsystems. Even though the company lost some of its prominence during the last tech boom, it still invested in many eventual winners, including Airbnb, Instacart, Slack and Robinhood.
