The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a former general partner of Kleiner Perkins.[2] The firm's first two investment vehicles were funded with Khosla's own personal capital and were not open to institutional investors. In March 2009, Pierre Lamond became General Partner.[3] In December 2009, Khosla completed fundraising for two new funds, to invest in cleantech and information technology start-ups.
Khosla Ventures Fund III secured $1 billion of investor commitments to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies. Khosla also raised $300 million for Khosla Seed, which will invest in higher-risk opportunities and science experiments.[4] The firm has invested in bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, wind, battery, engines, LED, HVAC efficiency and other environmentally friendly technologies.[5][6]
As of October 2015[update], Khosla Ventures was one of the five largest and most active investors in the space sector, which has had over US$10 billionofprivate capital invested in it since 2005.[7]
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. The fund has incubated several companies including QuantumScape and NextVivo.[9]
In January 2022, Khosla Ventures raised $557 million in its first opportunity fund.[10]
The firm 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 to support industries such as healthcare and transportation.[11][12]
Khosla Ventures has invested in several enterprise companies including Okta, valued at $27 billion as of August 2020, RingCentral, valued at $23.5 billion as of May 2021, along with others including Nutanix, ThoughtSpot and Rubrik. Khosla investments into transportation include Hermeus, Waabi, and Glydways.[13][14]
In October 2021, DevOps platform provider GitLab raised $801 million in its initial public offering. Khosla Ventures led the seed round in 2015 and reportedly made more than 150 times return on its investment.[15]
Khosla Ventures has also made numerous healthcare investments including Guardant Health.[16] Many of Khosla's healthcare investments are based on his belief that artificial intelligence will allow for safer and cheaper healthcare.[17] The companies include Color Genomics, a genetic testing service, Oscar Health, a tech enabled health insurance, Sword Health, which provides virtual MSK care, and Cellino which is known for its drug discovery.[18][19] Khosla Ventures was the first venture capital investor of Impossible Foods, investing $3 million in 2011.[citation needed]
Affirm, a financial technology company, raised $1.2 billion in its initial public offering, which was the largest U.S. filing of the year to date. The firm was its first venture capital investor.[20] 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.[21]
Khosla Ventures is also known for being the first investors in the corporate entity of OpenAI.
In February 2021, Khosla Ventures filed plans for the public offerings of three special-purpose acquisition companies (SPAC), which intend to raise a total of $1.2 billion for the purpose of acquiring and taking public three private companies.[34] Through a Khosla-backed SPAC, Nextdoor began trading under the ticker KIND in November 2021 with a $4.3 billion valuation. By August 2023 KIND's market cap had fallen to about $810 million.[35]
