Greylock closes $1.5 billion fund, keeps focus on few bets

Greylock closed its 18th fund at $1.5 billion on Tuesday, a size that is about 50% larger than its $1 billion fund from 2023 but still deliberately modest by Silicon Valley standards. Saam Motamedi said the firm could have raised a “multiple” of that amount, yet chose restraint instead.

The decision fits a model Greylock has spent years sharpening. Its 10 partners typically make only one or two new investments each year, which Motamedi said should translate into roughly 25 portfolio companies from the new fund. Greylock says that concentration helps it stay what it calls “the most important partner” to founders, working with entrepreneurs from day one and backing a majority of first-time company builders.

Greylock 17, announced in 2023, was a $1 billion early-stage vehicle aimed at Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A founders. Greylock said more than 80% of those investments landed in those stages, and the firm also launched Greylock Edge to support pre-idea and pre-seed founders. The new fund keeps that bias toward early-stage backing while leaving room for selected growth bets.

About 15% of the new fund will go to later-stage startups, Motamedi said, a sign that Greylock still wants to move when it missed a company early. The firm’s prior fund included later-stage positions in Anthropic, Revolut and Wiz. Greylock said its first investment in Anthropic came at Series F, when the company was valued at $183 billion, and Motamedi called it the largest investment in Greylock’s history.

That selective pace has become part of Greylock’s brand in a crowded venture market that often rewards scale over focus. The firm says it has backed founders behind Airbnb, LinkedIn, Meta, Palo Alto Networks, Okta, Pure Storage, Sumo Logic and Workday, while more recent bets include Abnormal AI, Cato Networks, Discord, Figma, Lyra Health and Rubrik. Greylock also says it has been committed to AI investing for a decade.

The concentration is meant to deliver more than access to capital. Greylock says it helps founders recruit engineers and win customers through its network, pointing to Baseten as an example. After Greylock first invested in the AI infrastructure company’s Series A in 2022, it helped introduce Baseten to engineers and potential customers, and Greylock now says the company is valued at $13 billion. Greylock also says 10% of the companies in its last fund started up in its offices, underscoring how tightly the firm ties its own identity to the earliest stages of company formation.