Greylock Ventures raises $1.5 billion fund, capping size to maintain early-stage focus

Greylock Ventures, one of the oldest and most prestigious venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, has raised its 18th fund at $1.5 billion. The new vehicle is 50% larger than the $1 billion fund the firm closed in 2023, though the total capital remains roughly equivalent to what Greylock raised across its seed and flagship funds during the pandemic period. Despite the increase, partner Saam Motamedi stated that the firm deliberately chose restraint, noting it could have raised a multiple of the current figure but opted against it to preserve its operational model.

The firm’s strategy centres on limiting its portfolio to approximately 25 companies per fund, a constraint designed to allow its 10 partners to provide deep, hands-on support to founders. Under this model, each partner is expected to make only one or two new investments annually. Motamedi emphasised that this pace is essential for Greylock to maintain its mission of being the most important partner to entrepreneurs, enabling the firm to assist portfolio companies with recruiting top engineers and connecting them with potential customers.

While the fund focuses primarily on seed and Series A rounds, Greylock retains flexibility to deploy capital into later-stage opportunities. Motamedi estimated that roughly 15% of the new fund will be allocated to high-potential startups that the firm may have missed in earlier rounds. This approach follows the firm’s 17th fund, which included growth-stage investments in Anthropic, Revolut, and Wiz. The investment in Anthropic, made during its Series F round at a $183 billion valuation, stands as the largest in the firm’s history.

Greylock’s investment philosophy prioritises individuals over existing entities, with partners reviewing potential founders even before they have launched a venture. Motamedi noted that weekly pipeline reviews focus primarily on people’s names rather than company names, reflecting a strategy of betting on the person. This person-first approach underpins the firm’s historical track record of incubating companies from scratch, including security giant Palo Alto Networks, which launched from Greylock’s offices 21 years ago, and email security startup Abnormal, which was incubated in 2018 and last valued at $5.1 billion.

The decision to cap the fund size at $1.5 billion stands in contrast to the broader venture capital industry trend of ballooning fund sizes. By resisting the pressure to raise significantly larger pools of capital, Greylock aims to maintain the intensity of its support for founders. The firm’s recent investment in AI infrastructure startup Baseten, which it backed in its Series A in 2022 and is now valued at $13 billion, illustrates the long-term value the firm seeks to generate through this concentrated, early-stage focus.