Menlo Ventures announced a new $3 billion fund on Tuesday, marking the largest capital raise in the firm's 50-year history. The firm said the raise was driven significantly by the performance of its artificial intelligence investments, particularly Anthropic. Bloomberg reported that Menlo's stake in Anthropic is now valued at about $14 billion, underscoring the scale of the return tied to a deal the firm made in 2024.
That investment came when Menlo led Anthropic's Series D with a $750 million commitment. The round valued Anthropic at $18.4 billion at the time. Menlo had already backed the company before it had a product, and by 2024 Anthropic had emerged as a high-profile AI startup founded by former OpenAI researchers Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei. It had also secured a $4 billion deal from Amazon and attracted strong venture interest.
A key feature of the 2024 deal was how Menlo assembled the capital. Roughly $500 million was raised through a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, while another $250 million came from Menlo's own fund and from firm insiders, Forbes reported at the time. Menlo has portrayed the move as a high-conviction gamble taken during a period when the venture market was still recovering from the post-pandemic downturn. Others have noted that, while the size and structure of the investment were unusually aggressive, Anthropic was already showing strong momentum, making the underlying company less speculative than the "bet-the-firm" framing suggests.
The firm has since expanded its ties to Anthropic beyond that initial investment. Menlo later participated in Anthropic's Series E and F financings and in 2024 launched a joint startup fund with the company called Anthology. Initially announced as a $100 million vehicle, the fund has since deployed closer to $250 million and backed more than 60 companies, while also offering access to Anthropic executives and Claude credits. Reported exits from the portfolio include Graphite, acquired by Cursor, and Astrix Security, acquired by Cisco.
Supporters of Menlo's strategy argue the new fund reflects how AI-focused investing is reshaping venture capital and positioning the firm to identify the next wave of startups. The firm's broader AI portfolio now includes companies such as OpenRouter, Higgsfield, Legora, Lovable, and OpenEvidence. At the same time, the Anthropic boom has also helped fuel a wider SPV market around AI companies. Anthropic warned last month that unauthorized SPVs and secondary market offerings claiming to sell its shares were scams, highlighting growing investor demand as well as the risks surrounding access to sought-after private AI companies.