Everipedia Logo
Everipedia is now IQ.wiki - Join the IQ Brainlist and our Discord for early access to editing on the new platform and to participate in the beta testing.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs[1] in over 900 ventures,[2][3] including America Online,[4] Amazon.com,[5] Tandem Computers, Compaq,[6] Electronic Arts,[4] JD.com, Square,[7] Genentech,[6] Google, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Nest, Synack, Snap, AppDynamics, and Twitter.[7] By 2019 it had raised around $9 billion in 19 venture capital funds[8] and four growth funds.[3]

Kleiner Perkins is headquartered in Menlo Park in Silicon Valley,[9] with offices in San Francisco[9] and Shanghai, China.[10]

The New York Times described Kleiner Perkins as “perhaps Silicon Valley’s most famous venture firm.”[11] The Wall Street Journal called it one of the "largest and most established" venture capital firms[12] and Dealbook named it "one of Silicon Valley's top venture capital providers."[13]

Kleiner Perkins
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB)
Private
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1972inCalifornia
FoundersEugene Kleiner,Tom Perkins,Frank J. Caufield,Brook Byers
Headquarters
ProductsInvestments
Website
img

History

The firm was formed in 1972 as Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB)[14][15] in Menlo Park, California,[16] with a focus on seed, early-stage, and growth companies.[14][15] The firm is named after its four founding partners: Eugene Kleiner, Tom Perkins, Frank J. Caufield, and Brook Byers.[16] Kleiner was a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor, and Perkins was an early Hewlett-Packard executive.[16][17] Byers joined in 1977.[18]

Located in Menlo Park, California, Kleiner Perkins had access to the growing technology industries in the area. By the early 1970s, there were many semiconductor companies based in the Santa Clara Valley as well as early computer firms using their devices and programming and service companies. Venture capital firms suffered a temporary downturn in 1974, when the stock market crashed and investors were naturally wary of this new kind of investment fund. Nevertheless, the firm was still active in this period. By 1996, Kleiner Perkins had funded around 260 companies a total of $880 million.[18] Beyond the original founders, notable members of the firm have included individuals such as[19] John Doerr,[20] Vinod Khosla,[21] and Bill Joy.[22]

Colin Powell joined as a “strategic” partner in 2005,[11] while Al Gore joined as partner[13] in 2007[21][23] as part of a collaboration between Kleiner Perkins and Generation Investment Management.[24] Mary Meeker joined the firm in 2010,[19] and that year Kleiner Perkins expanded its practice to invest in growth stage companies.[25] Meeker departed in 2019 to found Bond Capital.[26] Mamoon Hamid from Social Capital and Ilya Fushman from Index Partners joined in 2017 and 2018 respectively, both as investing partners.[27]

The New York Times has described Kleiner Perkins as “perhaps Silicon Valley’s most famous venture firm.”[11] The firm was described by Dealbook in 2009 as "one of Silicon Valley's top venture capital providers,”[13] and The Wall Street Journal in 2010 called it one of the "largest and most established" venture capital firms.[12] By 2019 it had raised around $9 billion in 19 venture capital funds[8] and four growth funds.[3]

In May 2012, Ellen Pao, an employee, sued the firm for gender discrimination in Pao v. Kleiner Perkins,[28] which the firm has vigorously denied.[29] On March 27, 2015, after a month-long trial, the jury found against Pao on all claims.[30] In June 2015, Pao filed an appeal.[31] In September 2015, Pao announced she would no longer appeal the jury verdict.[32]

In September 2018, Kleiner Perkins announced it was spinning out its digital growth team into a new independent firm.[33][34] The firm announced its 19th fund on January 31, 2019[8] after raising $600 million. The fund is focused on early stage investments[35] in the "consumer, enterprise, hard tech and fintech" sectors.[36]

Investments

In March 2008 Kleiner Perkins announced the iFund, a $100 million venture capital investment initiative that funds concepts related to the iPhone, and doubled that investment a year later.[37] It was reported in April 2008 that Kleiner Perkins was raising funds for a $500 million growth-stage clean-technology fund.[15][38] In October 2010, the firm launched a $250 million fund called sFund to focus on social startups, with co-investors such as Facebook, Zynga and Amazon.com.[39] In early 2016, the firm raised $1.4 billion in KP XVII and DGF III.[40] In early 2019, the firm raised $600 million in KP XVIII.[41]

The firm has been an early investor in more than 900[2] technology and life sciences firms since its founding,[42] [43][17][44][45] [46][47][48][49][50][51] including Amazon.com,[5] America Online,[4] Beyond Meat, Citrix,[52] Compaq,[6] Electronic Arts,[4] Genentech,[6] Google,[5] Intuit,[39] Lotus Development,[45] Netscape,[18] Shyp,[53] Nest,[52] Sun Microsystems,[45] and Twitter.[7] Some current investments include DJI, Handshake, Coursera,[7] Shape Security,[54] Farmers Business Network, IronNet Cybersecurity, Desktop Metal, Plaid, Rippling, Robinhood, Slack, UiPath, Netlify, Loom, Viz.ai, and Looker.[55] Very recent investments include Modern Health,[56] Pillar,[57] Future[58] and STORD.[59]

Kleiner Perkins paid $5 million in 1994 for around 25% of Netscape and profited from Netscape's IPO.[18] Its investment of $8 million in Cerent was worth around $2 billion when the optical equipment maker was sold to Cisco Systems[16] for $6.9 billion in August 1999.[60] In 1999, Kleiner Perkins[5] paid $12 million for a stake in Google.[5] As of 2019, the market cap of Google's parent company was estimated at around $831 billion.[62] As initial investors in Amazon.com Kleiner Perkins scored returns[5] in excess of $1 billion on an $8 million investment.[5]

Key partners

The firm currently has five partners managing investments:[27][19]

  • John Doerr (chairman)

  • Brook Byers (founder)

  • Ilya Fushman

  • Mamoon Hamid

  • Wen Hsieh

  • Bucky Moore

  • Ted Schlein

See also

References

[1]
Citation Linkinvesting.businessweek.com"Capital Markets: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[2]
Citation Linkwww.kleinerperkins.com"Assets": Kleiner Perkins, 2019
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[3]
Citation Linkwww.kpcb.comCompanies, Kleiner Perkins, 2017, retrieved 22 July 2017
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[4]
Citation Linkquery.nytimes.comClifford, Stephanie (28 April 2008). "Venture Firm Hires Creative Chief at Electronic Arts". The New York Times. New York City, United States. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[5]
Citation Linkwww.cnet.com"How John Doerr, the old prospector, finally struck Google". CNET. 2004. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[6]
Citation Linkquery.nytimes.com"Executive Joins Kleiner Perkins". The New York Times. 14 March 1984. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[7]
Citation Linkwww.kpcb.com"KPCB Portfolio Companies". Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2015. Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[8]
Citation Linkwww.prnewswire.com"Future Raises $8.5M in Series A Funding Led by Kleiner Perkins to Digitize the Personal Training Experience": Kleiner Perkins, 5/23/2019
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[9]
Citation Linkweb.archive.orgKleiner Perkins Offices at KPCB.com Archived 22 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[10]
Citation Linkwww.kpcb.comHeadquarters, KPCB China, retrieved 2 May 2017
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[11]
Citation Linkwww.nytimes.comRivlin, Gary (13 July 2005). "Colin Powell Joins Venture Capital Firm". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[12]
Citation Linkblogs.wsj.comAustin, Scott (22 January 2010). "One Of These Venture Firms Is Not Like The Other". The Wall Street Journal.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[13]
Citation Linkdealbook.blogs.nytimes.com"Gore's Dual Role in Spotlight: Advocate and Investor". The New York Times (Dealbook). 3 November 2009.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[14]
Citation Linkweb.archive.orgKPCB Information Technology Archived 3 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[15]
Citation Linkbits.blogs.nytimes.comRichtel, Matt (1 May 2008). "Kleiner Perkins Goes Late on Energy". The New York Times.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[16]
Citation Linkwww.fundinguniverse.comKleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers History, International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 53. St. James Press, 2003, retrieved 17 May 2017
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[17]
Citation Linkwww.fundinguniverse.comTandem Computers -International Directory of Company HistoriesVol. 6, St. James Press, 1992
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[18]
Citation Linkwww.washingtonpost.comCorcoran, Elizabeth (13 October 1996). "Venture Capital Firm Kleiner Perkins Has Long Nurtured Internet Enterprises". ‘’Washington Post’’. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[19]
Citation Linkwww.kpcb.com"Team". KPCB. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM
[20]
Citation Linkwww.amazon.comKaplan, Jerry (1996) [first published by Houghton Mifflin Company 1994]. Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure. Bridgewater, NJ: Penguin Books. pp. 301–302. ISBN 0-7351-0141-8. ISBN 0-395-71133-9 (hc.); ISBN 0 14 025731 4 (pbk.). Retrieved 13 June 2010.
Sep 20, 2019, 3:51 AM