# Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California, founded by Vinod Khosla in 2004. It focuses on early-stage investments in technology sectors including AI, clean technology, healthcare, and fintech, managing $15 billion in assets as of 2021.

Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur [Vinod Khosla](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/vinod-khosla) in 2004 and as of 2021 had approximately US$15 billion in assets under management. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence), financial services, agriculture, healthcare, and clean technology sectors. It is known for early capital investments in notable startups, including Impossible Foods, Instacart, Affirm, DoorDash, Square, and [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai).

The firm's investment philosophy centers on backing founders tackling fundamental scientific and engineering challenges, particularly in areas perceived as high-risk but with transformative potential, such as climate technology, computing infrastructure, and biomedical innovation.

## History

The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a former general partner of Kleiner Perkins. Khosla Ventures's first two investment vehicles were funded with his own personal capital and were not open to institutional investors.

Khosla Ventures Fund III secured $1 billion to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla also raised $300 million for Khosla Seed, which would invest in higher-risk opportunities and science experiments. By 2013, the company was considered one of the top investors in clean technology and had invested in more than 70 companies in the sector. As of October 2015, Khosla Ventures was one of the top five largest and most active investors in the space sector.

In September 2017, Khosla Ventures had about $5 billion in assets under management. In October 2021, Khosla Ventures announced that it had raised $1.4 billion in funding to invest in early-to-late stage startups, breaking down to $400 million for seed deals and $1 billion for later-stage companies. In January 2022, the firm raised $557 million in its first opportunity fund.

The firm ranked first in the "Founder's Choice VC" list of more than 200 venture capital firms in 2023. That same period, it closed $3.1 billion in new capital across three funds as of November 2023, including $1 billion for later-stage companies, $500 million for seed-stage companies, and $1.6 billion for its eighth flagship fund. It was the largest fundraiser by a venture capital firm that year. Khosla Ventures stated that the funding would be used for nuclear fusion, humanoid robots, and [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) to support industries such as healthcare and transportation.

In February 2024, Keith Rabois returned to the firm as a managing director. In October 2024, the firm raised a special purpose vehicle of $405 million to invest in OpenAI, reflecting continued focus on the [generative AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai) sector.

## Investment Strategy and Sectors

Khosla Ventures invests in companies across areas including [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence), climate, sustainability, enterprise, consumer, financial technology, digital health, medical technology and diagnostics, therapeutics, and frontier technology. The strategy often involves backing technical founders aiming for break-through science-driven business models, sometimes initiating investments when technologies are nascent.

In the consumer sector, the firm invested in DoorDash in 2013 before the company went public in 2020 with a $72 billion valuation. It also invested in Instacart in 2012 as part of a seed round before going public in 2020 with $11 billion in market capital. Other consumer investments include Opendoor.

Enterprise technology investments include Okta, Inc. in Series B funding in 2011 before going public in 2017, and GitLab in Series A funding in 2015 before going public in 2021 with $15 billion in market capital. Other enterprise investments include Cylance, Rubrik, Nutanix, and Replit.

## Notable Exits

Fintech bets include Block, Inc.'s Series A funding round in 2009 before going public in 2015, and Affirm in its Series A round in 2013 before going public in 2021 with a $24 billion valuation. Other fintech investments include Stripe, Upstart, and Ramp.

In climate technology, the firm invested in Commonwealth Fusion's $115 million Series A funding round in 2019, focusing on nuclear fusion, and was an early investor in QuantumScape, which went public in 2020. Other sustainability investments include Fortera, LanzaTech, and Verdagy.

For healthcare, the firm invested in Guardant Health's Series B funding round in 2014 before going public in 2018, and AliveCor in 2012. Other health investments include Headspace, Oscar, and Sword Health.

Khosla Ventures was the first venture capital firm to invest in OpenAI in 2018, supporting the later creation of [openai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model)'s large-scale language models. It also invested in Rocket Lab's Series A funding round in 2013 before going public in 2021. Other frontier investments include Glydways, Hermeus, Opentrons, and Varda.

## SPAC Activities and Recent Developments

In February 2021, Khosla Ventures filed plans for the public offerings of three special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) intending to raise a total of $1.2 billion to acquire private companies. Through a Khosla-backed SPAC, Nextdoor, trading under the ticker KIND, had its initial public offering in November 2021 with a $4.3 billion valuation. By August 2023, KIND's market cap had fallen to about $810 million, and Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. announced it would close business in December 2023.

The firm's involvement in team sports has also marked its trajectory. As of July 11, 2026, Khosla Ventures entered into a formal agreement to purchase ownership of the Seattle Seahawks from the Estate of Paul G. Allen, a transaction reflecting the firm's expanding scope.

Khosa's role as a founding associate at [Khosla Ventures](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/stanford-ai-lab) builds on his prior experience at Sun Microsystems and Kleiner Perkins, shaping its identity as an institutional investor with a long-horizon outlook.

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/khosla-ventures
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-05T13:23:28.015276+00:00