After betting on the company on Anthropic, Menlo Ventures raises $3 billion winning fund

Menlo Enterprises Announce $3 billion in funds on Tuesday, the largest increase in its 50-year history, was largely driven by its AI portfolio, particularly Anthropic. Its stake in the model maker is now worth about $14 billion. Sources told Bloomberg.

To hear the people at Menlo talk about it, they were nervous when they bet the company $750 million on Anthropic in 2024, preemptively leading the model maker’s Series D. At that time, that tour The startup’s value has quadrupled to $18.4 billion.

While the bet itself was arguably not terribly risky, the means by which the company raised this type of capital were riskier.

Menlo was an early investor, before Anthropic had a product. By 2024, long before Cloud Code and Cloud Mythos, the company was showing signs of success. It was Got a $4 billion deal from Amazon It has been heavily pursued by venture capital firms, having been founded by former OpenAI researchers, including CEO Dario Amodei’s siblings and President Daniela Amodei. It was a rising star AI company, Many of the startups founded by OpenAI still exist today.

But the way Menlo raised the money was remarkable. In 2024, the venture world was just rebounding from the post-pandemic venture capital winter, with big money firms like SoftBank and Tiger Global still licking their wounds. No one was writing checks for three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Menlo structured the bulk of the deal, worth about $500 million, as a special purpose vehicle, or SPV — a one-time investment entity created to pool money from multiple sources for a single deal. Menlo also contributed $250 million from its own fund and contributions from Menlo insiders Forbes said at the timeBringing the total round to $750 million.

Since then, A.I Special purpose companies have become common As cockroaches, with Anthropic target specific – To this extent The artificial intelligence company issued a warning last monthdescribing all unauthorized special purpose companies and secondary markets that claim to sell their shares as “scams.”

But for those invested in Menlo’s 2024 authorized deal, the aggressive push has paid off handsomely. Menlo went to invest in Series E and F of the company.

Moreover, Menlo continued Launching a $100 million startup fund with Anthropic in 2024which they cutely named Anthology. That fund has since swelled to a capital deployment so far approaching $250 million, a source familiar with the fund told TechCrunch. Not only has it backed over 60 companies (and provided them with support, such as access to Anthropic Commanders and credits for Claude), but it has actually generated a number of revenues. These companies include Graphite, which was acquired by Cursor, and Astrix Security, which was acquired by Cisco.

The fund has allowed Menlo to get on the pulse of early-stage AI startups, categories and technology. The venture capital firm has since built a broader representation of AI investing, including AI stars OpenRouter, higgsfield, Ligura, lovable, OpenEvidence And many more in its portfolio.