Technology
Early Anthropic Backer Menlo Lands $3 Billion in Its Largest-Ever Haul
Key Points
Early Anthropic Backer Menlo Lands $3 Billion in Its Largest-Ever Haul In 2024, Menlo Ventures made the risky decision to raise $500 million to invest in Anthropic PBC, then an underdog rival to OpenAI that had yet to generate meaningful revenue or gain mainstream adoption like ChatGPT. Menlo’s stake in Anthropic, including an additional $500 million in investments across several rounds, is currently worth nearly $14 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the artificial...
Early Anthropic Backer Menlo Lands $3 Billion in Its Largest-Ever Haul
In 2024, Menlo Ventures made the risky decision to raise $500 million to invest in Anthropic PBC, then an underdog rival to OpenAI that had yet to generate meaningful revenue or gain mainstream adoption like ChatGPT.
Menlo’s stake in Anthropic, including an additional $500 million in investments across several rounds, is currently worth nearly $14 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the artificial intelligence startup’s valuation has soared to more than $900 billion.
The large gamble on Anthropic, which Menlo managing partner Shawn Carolan refers to as a “bet-the-firm moment,” is now helping to supercharge its clout and investing activity. On Tuesday, Menlo is set to announce that it’s raised $3 billion for a set of funds dedicated to backing AI startups, marking the venture firm’s largest fundraising haul to date. As part of that, Menlo, historically focused on backing newer startups, also intends to pursue more later-stage bets similar in size to its Anthropic investment.