Kleiner Perkins
Kleiner Perkins is an American venture capital firm founded in 1972 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California on Sand Hill Road. The firm invests across seed, early, and growth stages, with $21 billion in assets under management as of 2026. Its portfolio spans more than 900 companies over five decades, including early-stage investments in Genentech, Compaq, Sun Microsystems, Netscape, Amazon, and Google.1
Founding
Kleiner Perkins was established in 1972 by Eugene Kleiner and Tom Perkins in Menlo Park, California. Kleiner had been a co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor, one of the foundational companies of the Silicon Valley semiconductor industry. Perkins had been a senior executive at Hewlett-Packard. Frank J. Caufield and Brook Byers joined as partners — Byers in 1977 — expanding the firm's name to Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB).1
The firm was the first venture capital firm to open an office on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, and is credited with establishing the concentration of VC firms that developed along that corridor through the 1970s and 1980s.1
Early investments and growth
The firm made one of its earliest landmark investments in Genentech in 1976, backing Robert Swanson and Herbert Boyer's biotechnology startup at a time when the field had no established investment category. Genentech went public in 1980 in one of the most watched science IPOs of that era.1
By 1996, Kleiner Perkins had funded approximately 260 companies with a total of $880 million deployed across its funds.7 Investments from that period include Compaq, Sun Microsystems, Electronic Arts, Intuit, Lotus Development, Netscape, and AOL.
John Doerr joined the firm in the 1980s and became its most prominent public face. Doerr led the firm's investments in Amazon (1996) and Google (1999), the latter alongside Sequoia Capital in a $25 million round that was one of the most consequential Series A investments in technology history.1
Fund history
The firm raised successive numbered funds beginning in the 1970s. By 2019 it had closed 19 venture funds, deploying roughly $9 billion in aggregate across those vehicles, plus four dedicated growth funds.1 In January 2019, the firm closed KP XVIII at $600 million, marking a significant reorientation of the partnership under managing partners Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman.1
In 2021, Kleiner Perkins raised Select I, its first standalone growth fund under the new structure. In 2022, it raised KP20 (early-stage) and Select II (growth). In 2024, the firm closed KP21 at $825 million for early-stage investing and Select III at $1.2 billion for growth, bringing the fund count to 21 venture funds and six growth funds.4
In March 2026, the firm announced KP22, a $1 billion early-stage fund, alongside $2.5 billion in new growth capital through Select IV, totaling $3.5 billion in new commitments.32
Key partners
Beyond the founding partners, the firm has included several significant investors. John Doerr joined the firm in the 1980s and led the Amazon and Google investments; he later became chair of the firm. Vinod Khosla was a partner during the 1980s and 1990s before founding Khosla Ventures. Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, joined as a partner in 2005. Al Gore joined as a partner in 2007 as part of a collaboration with Generation Investment Management, focused on climate-related investments. Mary Meeker, analyst and technology investor, joined in 2010 and led the firm's digital growth practice until 2019, when she departed to found Bond Capital.1
Mamoon Hamid, formerly of Social Capital, joined in 2017. Ilya Fushman, formerly of Index Ventures, joined in 2018. The two have led the firm's operations since 2019.1
Investment focus and portfolio
Kleiner Perkins has backed companies across consumer technology, enterprise software, health and life sciences, climate technology, fintech, and, increasingly since the early 2020s, artificial intelligence. Its AI portfolio investments include Anthropic, Glean, Harvey, Rippling, Applied Intuition, and Together AI.1
Notable portfolio companies across the firm's history include:
- Genentech (1976) — biotechnology pioneer, acquired by Roche in 2009 for $46.8 billion
- Compaq (1982) — first IBM-PC compatible personal computer manufacturer
- Sun Microsystems (1982) — workstation and server company
- Electronic Arts (1982) — video game publisher
- Netscape (1994) — web browser pioneer
- Amazon (1996) — John Doerr led the investment prior to the company's 1997 IPO
- Google (1999) — co-led with Sequoia Capital
- Twitter — early investor
- Snap — early backer prior to 2017 IPO
- Anthropic — large language model company, co-founded by former OpenAI researchers
In 2008, the firm launched the iFund, a $100 million vehicle to back iPhone application companies, which it doubled to $200 million the following year. In 2010, it launched the $250 million sFund targeting social companies, with co-investors including Facebook and Zynga.1
Ellen Pao lawsuit
In May 2012, Ellen Pao, a junior partner and former chief of staff to John Doerr, sued the firm for gender discrimination in San Francisco County Superior Court, seeking $16 million in compensatory damages plus punitive damages.6 Pao alleged that the firm had a culture that disadvantaged women in promotions and that she had experienced retaliation after ending a relationship with a senior male colleague.5
The case attracted extensive coverage as a public examination of gender dynamics in Silicon Valley's venture capital industry. After a month-long trial, the jury found against Pao on all four claims on March 27, 2015.5 Pao filed an appeal in June 2015 but withdrew it in September 2015.6 The case prompted broader industry conversation about diversity and workplace culture in venture capital, and Pao subsequently became CEO of Reddit and co-founded the advocacy group Project Include.
Reorientation (2018–present)
In September 2018, the firm spun out its digital growth team — which had been led by Mary Meeker — into a separate independent firm. The restructuring concentrated the core partnership on early-stage investing under Hamid and Fushman.1 The firm shortened its brand name from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to Kleiner Perkins at this time.
The 2019 relaunch was accompanied by KP XVIII ($600 million), with an explicit focus on consumer, enterprise, hard tech, and fintech sectors.1 Subsequent funds have reflected an increasing orientation toward AI companies, culminating in the 2026 announcement that framed KP22 and Select IV explicitly around artificial intelligence investments in software, health care, transportation, and autonomy.3