Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
Encyclopedia
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is a world-leading venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road
in Menlo Park
in Silicon Valley
. The Wall Street Journal
has called it one of the "largest and most established" venture capital firms in the world. The New York Times
has called it "one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers," and said that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms." Reuters
news service has called KPCB "one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world."
KPCB specializes in investments in incubation and early stage companies. Since 1972, KPCB has supported hundreds of entrepreneurs in building over 475 companies, including such major names as Amazon.com
, Sun Microsystems
, Electronic Arts
, Genentech
, Intuit, AOL
, Genomic Health, Verisign
, and Google
. More than 150 of the firm's portfolio companies have gone public. Its team includes the world leading venture capitalist John Doerr
; Sun Microsystem's co-founder Bill Joy
; NASA rocket scientist K. R. Sridhar
; former US Vice President Al Gore
; and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell
.
The firm is based in Menlo Park, California
. It has offices in Shanghai
, China
and in Beijing
, China.
, Energy
, Greentech
industries, Utilities, the Life Sciences
, and Pharmaceuticals. KPCB is highly selective in the companies it invests in, and it aims to build "category defining companies" that will become leaders in the field. It has traditionally focused on early-stage investments, but also does later-stage investments. KPCB is highly respected within the industry, and is regarded as having the best track record of building world-class companies. As such, an investment by KPCB is considered a sign that a company has great potential.
Notable members of the firm include partners John Doerr
, Ray Lane, and Brook Byers
, as well as high-profile individuals such as Sun Microsystems
co-founder Bill Joy
(who joined as partner in January 2005), former U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell
(who joined in July 2005 in the newly-created position of "strategic limited partner"),Vinod Khosla and former U.S. Vice President
Al Gore
, who joined as partner in November 2007 as part of a collaboration between KPCB and Gore's firm Generation Investment Management
(GIM) to promote green technology
, business and policy solutions.
The firm was named after its four founding partners: Eugene Kleiner
(emeritus
), Tom Perkins
(emeritus), Frank J. Caufield
(emeritus), and Brook Byers
. KPCB was formed in 1972.
Like other venture capital firms, the firm does not discourage transactions among companies in which it holds a stake. This is similar to the Japanese keiretsu
style of company structure.
. Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, founded in 1972, was among the pioneers. At that point, the founders of most venture capital
firms came from financial backgrounds, however Kleiner Perkins's founders distinguished themselves through their technology industry experience; Kleiner was a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor
and Perkins was one of the leaders of Hewlett-Packard
's early computer hardware division. Located, in Menlo Park, California
, Kleiner Perkins would have access to the burgeoning 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, Kleiner Perkins was still active in this period. Kleiner invested in Tandem Computers
, an early manufacturer of computer systems, founded in 1975 by Jimmy Treybig
.
It was not until 1978 that venture capital experienced its first major fundraising year, as the industry raised approximately $750 million.
asked Gore if he was a member of KPCB, and then inquired: "The legislation that we are discussing here today, is that something that you are going to personally benefit from?” She cited constituent concerns about Gore's role with KPCB as the reason for her inquiry. Gore stated that every penny made from his investments were put in a non-profit to spread awareness of climate change. The exchange ended with Gore stating: “Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country? ...I am proud of it. I am proud of it.”
, America Online, Brio Technology
, Compaq
, GenScript, Electronic Arts
, Flextronics
, Genentech
, Google
, Intuit, Lotus Development, LSI Logic, Macromedia
, Netscape, Quantum, Segway
, Sun Microsystems
, and Tandem
. Current private investments include EEstor
, Vertica
, Chegg
, Shopkick, Zynga
, Ocarina Networks
, Plum District
, Cooliris
, and OptiMedica.
KPCB paid $4 million in 1994 for around 25% of Netscape and profited from Netscape's IPO
and subsequent $4 billion acquisition by America Online. An investment of $8 million in Cerent was worth around $2 billion when the optical equipment maker was sold to Cisco Systems
for $6.9 billion in August 1999.
In 1999, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital
paid $25 million for 20% of Google
—as of November 2008 Google's market capitalization
stood at about $108 billion. As initial investors in Amazon.com KPCB scored returns of over 55,000% at the December 1999 peak of that stock, although the value of that investment was subsequently reduced by downturns in Amazon.com's stock price.
In March 2008, KPCB announced the iFund
, a $100 million venture capital investment initiative that funds innovators developing applications, services, and components for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch platform, including Shopkick, ngmoco
, Booyah
and Shazam
. KPCB's other mobile initiatives also include an investment in InMobi
, a mobile ad network based out of Bangalore. KPCB doubled their iFund investment in April 2009 to $200 million.
In April 2008, it was reported that KPCB was raising funds for a $400 million growth-stage clean-technology fund. In October 2010, KPCB has launched a new $250 mn fund called sFund to fund the startups in the social space with Facebook
, Zynga
and Amazon.com
as its co-investors.
s on U.S. roads beginning late next year and could make the famed tech region south of San Francisco a center for these vehicles. The venture will be called Think North America and be based in Menlo Park, California
.
The plan will bring together Kleiner with RockPort Capital Management, a venture capital firm focused on clean technology
, and Think Global, a Norwegian electric car maker.
, information technology, and life sciences ventures. The firm also announced the opening of its $500 million Green Growth Fund, which intends to help speed mass market adoption of solutions to the world’s climate crisis. KPCB XIII will mainly back early stage entrepreneurs, while the Green Growth Fund will support companies that have already entered their growth phase. The greentech coverage of KPCB XIII and the Green Growth Fund will extend the firms’ existing collaboration with London-based Generation Investment Management
. Through their alliance, the firms actively work together to find, fund, and accelerate green solutions with the greatest potential to help solve the climate crisis. John Doerr, the firm's leader, said that this $1.2 billion investment would help bring breakthrough inventions to the market.
Sand Hill Road
Sand Hill Road is a road in Menlo Park, California, notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. Its significance as a symbol of private equity in the United States may be compared to that of Wall Street in the stock market...
in Menlo Park
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
has called it one of the "largest and most established" venture capital firms in the world. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
has called it "one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers," and said that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms." Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
news service has called KPCB "one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world."
KPCB specializes in investments in incubation and early stage companies. Since 1972, KPCB has supported hundreds of entrepreneurs in building over 475 companies, including such major names as Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, Genentech
Genentech
Genentech Inc., or Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology corporation, founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. Trailing the founding of Cetus by five years, it was an important step in the evolution of the biotechnology industry...
, Intuit, AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, Genomic Health, Verisign
VeriSign
Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
, and Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
. More than 150 of the firm's portfolio companies have gone public. Its team includes the world leading venture capitalist John Doerr
John Doerr
L. John Doerr is an American venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, California, in Silicon Valley. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed as a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the president and his administration with advice and...
; Sun Microsystem's co-founder Bill Joy
Bill Joy
William Nelson Joy , commonly known as Bill Joy, is an American computer scientist. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Andy Bechtolsheim, and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003...
; NASA rocket scientist K. R. Sridhar
K. R. Sridhar
-Education:Sridhar was awarded a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology at Tiruchirappalli, India in 1982. He moved to the United States in the 1980s and gained a M.S...
; former US Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
; and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
.
The firm is based in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
. It has offices in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China.
The firm
KPCB is a world leader in investments in Information TechnologyInformation technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, Energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, Greentech
Greentech
Greentech could refer to:* Cleantech* Green technology, also called environmental technology* GreenTech ITM, a Roswell, Georgia based company that creates modular turf systems...
industries, Utilities, the Life Sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
, and Pharmaceuticals. KPCB is highly selective in the companies it invests in, and it aims to build "category defining companies" that will become leaders in the field. It has traditionally focused on early-stage investments, but also does later-stage investments. KPCB is highly respected within the industry, and is regarded as having the best track record of building world-class companies. As such, an investment by KPCB is considered a sign that a company has great potential.
Notable members of the firm include partners John Doerr
John Doerr
L. John Doerr is an American venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, California, in Silicon Valley. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed as a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the president and his administration with advice and...
, Ray Lane, and Brook Byers
Brook Byers
Brook Byers is a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the brother of Stanford University Professor Tom Byers and Atlanta, Georgia engineering entrepreneur ....
, as well as high-profile individuals such as Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
co-founder Bill Joy
Bill Joy
William Nelson Joy , commonly known as Bill Joy, is an American computer scientist. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Andy Bechtolsheim, and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003...
(who joined as partner in January 2005), former U.S. Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
(who joined in July 2005 in the newly-created position of "strategic limited partner"),Vinod Khosla and former U.S. Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, who joined as partner in November 2007 as part of a collaboration between KPCB and Gore's firm Generation Investment Management
Generation Investment Management
Generation Investment Management LLP is a London-based investment management firm with an investment style that blends traditional equity research with a focus on sustainability factors, including social and environmental responsibility and corporate governance.Generation Investment Management LLP...
(GIM) to promote green technology
Environmental technology
Environmental technology or green technology or clean technology is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic devices to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of...
, business and policy solutions.
The firm was named after its four founding partners: Eugene Kleiner
Eugene Kleiner
Eugene Kleiner was one of the original founders of Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm which later became Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers....
(emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
), Tom Perkins
Tom Perkins
Thomas James Perkins is an American businessman, capitalist, and was one of the founders of leading venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.-Biography:...
(emeritus), Frank J. Caufield
Frank J. Caufield
Frank J. Caufield is best known as a co-founder of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, based in Menlo Park, California....
(emeritus), and Brook Byers
Brook Byers
Brook Byers is a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the brother of Stanford University Professor Tom Byers and Atlanta, Georgia engineering entrepreneur ....
. KPCB was formed in 1972.
Like other venture capital firms, the firm does not discourage transactions among companies in which it holds a stake. This is similar to the Japanese keiretsu
Keiretsu
A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group. The keiretsu has maintained dominance over the Japanese economy for the greater half of the twentieth century....
style of company structure.
History
The growth of the venture capital industry was fueled by the emergence of the independent investment firms on Sand Hill RoadSand Hill Road
Sand Hill Road is a road in Menlo Park, California, notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. Its significance as a symbol of private equity in the United States may be compared to that of Wall Street in the stock market...
. Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, founded in 1972, was among the pioneers. At that point, the founders of most venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firms came from financial backgrounds, however Kleiner Perkins's founders distinguished themselves through their technology industry experience; Kleiner was a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. is an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957, it was a pioneer in transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing...
and Perkins was one of the leaders of Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
's early computer hardware division. Located, in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
, Kleiner Perkins would have access to the burgeoning technology industries in the area. By the early 1970s, there were many semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
companies based in the Santa Clara Valley
Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its high concentration...
as well as early computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
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, Kleiner Perkins was still active in this period. Kleiner invested in Tandem Computers
Tandem Computers
Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applications requiring maximum uptime and zero data loss. The company was founded in...
, an early manufacturer of computer systems, founded in 1975 by Jimmy Treybig
James Treybig
James Treybig founded Tandem Computers, a pioneering Silicon Valley manufacturer of fault tolerant computer systems which were marketed to the growing number of transaction processing customers who used them for ATMs, banks, stock exchanges and other similar needs.He attended Rice University,...
.
It was not until 1978 that venture capital experienced its first major fundraising year, as the industry raised approximately $750 million.
Congressional questioning of Al Gore's involvement
On April 24, 2009, during a congressional hearing, Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha BlackburnMarsha Blackburn
Marsha Wedgeworth Blackburn is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. She is a member of the Republican Party. The district stretches from the suburbs of Nashville to the suburbs of Memphis.-Early life, education and career:...
asked Gore if he was a member of KPCB, and then inquired: "The legislation that we are discussing here today, is that something that you are going to personally benefit from?” She cited constituent concerns about Gore's role with KPCB as the reason for her inquiry. Gore stated that every penny made from his investments were put in a non-profit to spread awareness of climate change. The exchange ended with Gore stating: “Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country? ...I am proud of it. I am proud of it.”
Investments
The company has been an early investor in more than 300 IT (information technology) and biotech firms, over the past thirty five years, including: Amazon.comAmazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, America Online, Brio Technology
Brio Technology
Brio Technology was a San Francisco Bay area software company cofounded in 1984 by Yorgen Edholm and Katherine Glassey. The company is best known for their business intelligence software systems, starting with DataPivot on the Apple Macintosh. Brio Software was acquired by Hyperion in 2003...
, Compaq
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
, GenScript, Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, Flextronics
Flextronics
Flextronics International Ltd. is an electronics manufacturing services provider that offers services to original equipment manufacturers . It also provides supporting supply chain services, including packaging and transportation throughout the world, as well as design and after-sales...
, Genentech
Genentech
Genentech Inc., or Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a biotechnology corporation, founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. Trailing the founding of Cetus by five years, it was an important step in the evolution of the biotechnology industry...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Intuit, Lotus Development, LSI Logic, Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
, Netscape, Quantum, Segway
Segway Inc.
Segway Inc. of New Hampshire, USA is the manufacturer of a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle, the Segway PT, invented by Dean Kamen...
, Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, and Tandem
Tandem Computers
Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applications requiring maximum uptime and zero data loss. The company was founded in...
. Current private investments include EEstor
EEStor
EEStor is a company based in Cedar Park, Texas, United States that claims to have developed a revolutionary new type of capacitor for electricity storage, which EEStor calls the 'Electrical Energy Storage Unit'...
, Vertica
Vertica
Vertica Systems is an analytic database management software company. Vertica was founded in 2005 by database researcher Michael Stonebraker, and Andrew Palmer; its President and CEO is Christopher P. Lynch. HP announced it would acquire the company in February 2011. On March 22, 2011, HP completed...
, Chegg
Chegg
Chegg or Chegg.com is an online textbook rental company in the United States based in Santa Clara, CA, which was created in 2001 by three Iowa State University students. Students rent textbooks typically by ordering online, and return books after the semester. It was founded by entrepreneurs Osman...
, Shopkick, Zynga
Zynga
Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
, Ocarina Networks
Ocarina Networks
Ocarina Networks is a technology company selling a hardware/software solution designed to reduce data footprints with file-aware storage optimization. A subsidiary of Dell, their flagship product, the Ocarina Appliance/Reader, released in April 2008, uses patented data compression techniques...
, Plum District
Plum district
Plum District is a group buying website that focuses on mothers and their buying power. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and offers deals in North America as a 'Everywhere Deal' and in local markets including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.In March 2011, the...
, Cooliris
Cooliris
Cooliris, Inc. is a US corporation. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Cooliris develops products intended to enhance user experience of online media...
, and OptiMedica.
KPCB paid $4 million in 1994 for around 25% of Netscape and profited from Netscape's IPO
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
and subsequent $4 billion acquisition by America Online. An investment of $8 million in Cerent was worth around $2 billion when the optical equipment maker was sold to Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
for $6.9 billion in August 1999.
In 1999, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
paid $25 million for 20% of Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
—as of November 2008 Google's market capitalization
Market capitalization
Market capitalization is a measurement of the value of the ownership interest that shareholders hold in a business enterprise. It is equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a publicly traded company...
stood at about $108 billion. As initial investors in Amazon.com KPCB scored returns of over 55,000% at the December 1999 peak of that stock, although the value of that investment was subsequently reduced by downturns in Amazon.com's stock price.
In March 2008, KPCB announced the iFund
IFund
The iFund is a US$200 million capital fund. Developers may enter into equity deals for the creation of applications, services, and components for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platform...
, a $100 million venture capital investment initiative that funds innovators developing applications, services, and components for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch platform, including Shopkick, ngmoco
Ngmoco
ngmoco, Inc. is an American-based publisher of video games for the iOS and Android platforms, and a subsidiary of DeNA. The company was founded by former Electronic Arts executive Neil Young in July 2008. Since its founding, ngmoco has had more than seven million combined game installs...
, Booyah
Booyah
Booyah is a social web and mobile entertainment company. The development team draws its experience from the consumer web and social gaming space and entertainment studios such as Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, EA, and Insomniac Games...
and Shazam
Shazam (service)
Shazam is a commercial mobile phone based music identification service, with its headquarters in London, England. The company was founded in 1999 by Chris Barton , Philip Inghelbrecht, Dhiraj Mukherjee and Avery Wang ....
. KPCB's other mobile initiatives also include an investment in InMobi
InMobi
InMobi is the largest independent mobile advertising network in the world. The company was founded in India in 2007 and has business set up in the Asia Pacific region, Africa, US, Europe, and Japan...
, a mobile ad network based out of Bangalore. KPCB doubled their iFund investment in April 2009 to $200 million.
In April 2008, it was reported that KPCB was raising funds for a $400 million growth-stage clean-technology fund. In October 2010, KPCB has launched a new $250 mn fund called sFund to fund the startups in the social space with Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Zynga
Zynga
Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
and Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
as its co-investors.
Think America
In 2008 KPCB announced its plan to put as many as 50,000 electric carElectric car
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
s on U.S. roads beginning late next year and could make the famed tech region south of San Francisco a center for these vehicles. The venture will be called Think North America and be based in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
.
The plan will bring together Kleiner with RockPort Capital Management, a venture capital firm focused on clean technology
Clean technology
Clean technology includes recycling, renewable energy , information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, Greywater, and many other appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels, with a smaller environmental...
, and Think Global, a Norwegian electric car maker.
KPCB XIII fund and Green Growth Fund
In May 2008, KPCB announced the formation of its most recent fund, KPCB XIII. KPCB XIII plans to invest $700 million over roughly a three-year period, backing entrepreneurs and innovation in greentechEnvironmental technology
Environmental technology or green technology or clean technology is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic devices to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of...
, information technology, and life sciences ventures. The firm also announced the opening of its $500 million Green Growth Fund, which intends to help speed mass market adoption of solutions to the world’s climate crisis. KPCB XIII will mainly back early stage entrepreneurs, while the Green Growth Fund will support companies that have already entered their growth phase. The greentech coverage of KPCB XIII and the Green Growth Fund will extend the firms’ existing collaboration with London-based Generation Investment Management
Generation Investment Management
Generation Investment Management LLP is a London-based investment management firm with an investment style that blends traditional equity research with a focus on sustainability factors, including social and environmental responsibility and corporate governance.Generation Investment Management LLP...
. Through their alliance, the firms actively work together to find, fund, and accelerate green solutions with the greatest potential to help solve the climate crisis. John Doerr, the firm's leader, said that this $1.2 billion investment would help bring breakthrough inventions to the market.
External links
- Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- Videos of Khosla, Doerr, Komisar, speaking at Stanford