Greylock Partners

Greylock Partners is an American venture capital firm founded in 1965, one of the oldest venture firms in the United States.¹ Based in Menlo Park, California, the firm manages over $3.5 billion in committed capital and invests at the seed and early stages.¹

Founding and early history

Greylock was founded in 1965 in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Bill Elfers and Dan Gregory, joined shortly thereafter by Charlie Waite.¹ Elfers and Waite had both worked at American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC), the venture firm founded by Georges Doriot in 1946 and considered the first institutional venture capital firm in the United States.¹ The firm's name comes from Greylock Avenue in Wellesley Hills, where Elfers lived.¹ Initial capital of $10 million was committed by a group of six families, and the firm opened a second fund in 1973.¹

For its first three decades, Greylock operated from Boston, investing in enterprise technology, healthcare, and cable. Early investments included Continental Cablevision (one of the largest cable operators in the US) and Stratus Computer.¹² The firm closed its 12th fund with $500 million in 2005.¹

The move to Silicon Valley

In 1999, Greylock opened its first Silicon Valley office, initially as a satellite of the Boston operation.¹ In 2009, the firm relocated its headquarters from Boston to Menlo Park. Partner Henry McCance said the firm concluded that "the Boston area has not been as successful in spawning and sustaining great companies" and that "you got to fish in the pond where the fish are."² The New York Times asked whether Boston was "still a venture capital hotbed."⁷

LinkedIn, Facebook, and the consumer pivot

In 2004, Greylock led LinkedIn's Series B, a $10 million round. In April 2006, partner David Sze led Greylock's participation in Facebook's $27.5 million Series B at a $500 million pre-money valuation, alongside Meritech Capital, the Founders Fund, and Accel.¹⁵¹⁹

In 2009, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, joined Greylock as a partner while remaining LinkedIn's executive chairman.⁹ Hoffman's arrival coincided with Greylock's pivot from its enterprise-heavy portfolio toward consumer internet companies.³ Sze also led the firm's investments in Pandora and Digg; the latter was sold for parts in 2012 after failing to sustain its early traffic.¹

Airbnb and the 2010s

Partner John Lilly led Greylock's Series A investment in Airbnb in November 2010.⁸ Airbnb went public in December 2020 at a $47 billion valuation.⁸

Greylock participated in Coinbase's $100 million Series D in 2017, led by IVP.¹⁶ The firm also invested in Okta (Series A, IPO 2017),Figma (Series B; Adobe announced a $20 billion acquisition in 2022 that was abandoned in December 2023 after regulatory opposition),¹⁷ and led early rounds in Palo Alto Networks and Workday.¹¹² Workday's 2012 IPO was the largest enterprise software offering at the time.¹²

In 2015, Greylock's Israeli affiliate, Greylock IL, rebranded as 83North with a $200 million fund, becoming an independently operated firm while maintaining close ties to Greylock.¹¹

Recent funds and AI investments

Greylock's flagship funds have held at approximately $1 billion since 2013. Fund XIII closed at $575 million in 2009 (later expanded to $1 billion),¹⁴¹ Fund XIV raised $1 billion in 2013,³ Fund XV raised $1 billion in 2016,⁴ and Fund XVI raised $1 billion in 2020.⁵ In 2021, Greylock added a $500 million seed-only vehicle to compete for the earliest deals.⁶

In 2022, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection AI, joined Greylock as a venture partner.¹⁰ Suleyman left Greylock in March 2024 to become CEO of Microsoft AI.¹⁸ The firm's recent investments include Inflection AI (co-founded by Suleyman),Adept AI, and Roblox (direct listing 2021).¹

In 2019, David Sze, who had led the firm's consumer practice and its investments in Facebook and LinkedIn, stepped back from venture capital.¹³ The firm has 30+ employees and operates from its Menlo Park headquarters.¹