The VC that turned a $750M Anthropic deal into a $14B stake just raised $3B to do it again — TFN

• Menlo Ventures has raised $3 billion throughout two new funds, its largest elevate in 50 years, break up between an early-stage car and a development fund for corporations scaling at Collection B and past.

• The elevate is backed by an Anthropic stake now price roughly $14 billion, after the agency first backed the AI firm in 2023, when it was pre-product and pre-revenue.

• Menlo is deploying capital throughout the complete AI stack, from basis mannequin infrastructure to enterprise and shopper purposes, with portfolio corporations together with Lovable, Suno, Axiom, Goodfire, and Skild AI.

Menlo Ventures introduced $3 billion in new capital, its largest elevate in 50 years. The cash is break up throughout two funds: Menlo Ventures XVII for seed and Collection A rounds, and Menlo Inflection IV for corporations at Collection B and past. 

In response to Bloomberg, Menlo has put roughly $1 billion into Anthropic over time. Its stake is now price roughly $14 billion. That return is why this elevate was sized this manner. 

The agency first backed Anthropic in 2023, when the corporate had no product, no income, and a lot of the market had already written off the inspiration mannequin race as determined. Then, in 2024, Menlo went additional. It led Anthropic’s $750 million Collection D, quadrupling the startup’s valuation to $18.4 billion on the time. 

The construction of that deal was unconventional even by Silicon Valley requirements. Menlo put roughly $500 million by way of a special-purpose car, and contributed the remaining $250 million from its personal fund and from agency insiders. 

“AI is creating one of many largest know-how platform shifts we’ll see on this lifetime. What makes this second distinctive is the pace and breadth of the change. However it’s nonetheless very early — extremely early — and most of the defining AI corporations of the following decade have but to be constructed. These funds give us the capital and suppleness to associate with founders from firm formation by way of hypergrowth,” says Matt Murphy, associate at Menlo Ventures, who has led the agency’s AI technique because it reorganised across the sector greater than three years in the past. 

From one wager to an ecosystem

The Anthropic relationship didn’t cease on the Collection D. In July 2024, Menlo and Anthropic collectively launched the $100 million Anthology Fund, modelled on Apple and Kleiner Perkins’ 2008 iFund, to again early-stage startups constructing on Anthropic know-how. What began at $100 million has grown significantly. 

The fund has deployed roughly $250 million throughout greater than 60 corporations, with early exits together with acquisitions by Cursor and Cisco. In follow, Anthology features as Menlo’s early-warning system: a strategy to see the place AI purposes are getting traction earlier than they turn into apparent to everybody else.

The broader portfolio covers each layer of the stack. On the infrastructure stage, Menlo has backed Axiom, Chai Discovery, Goodfire, Neon, OpenRouter, and Skild AI. On the utility stage, it led Lovable’s Series B, the Swedish vibe-coding platform now valued at $6.6 billion, alongside bets on Suno, OpenEvidence, and Wispr Circulate.

“Sturdy portfolios appeal to sturdy founders. That’s the compounding energy of a best-in-class AI portfolio. Each firm we again makes the entire community smarter, and that edge flows to each founder within the portfolio. In at this time’s market, one of the best AI founders have their alternative of buyers; being near the businesses defining the class is a bonus that capital alone can’t purchase,” provides Venky Ganesan, associate at Menlo Ventures. 

Elevating right into a crowded room

The capital market Menlo is elevating into has modified dramatically since 2023. 

Kleiner Perkins closed $3.5 billion across two AI-focused funds in March 2026, up from $2 billion lower than two years earlier. Andreessen Horowitz raised more than $15 billion across six funds in early 2026 — over 18% of all US enterprise capital raised in 2025. Sequoia raised roughly $7 billion for its growth technique fund, practically double its comparable 2022 car. At $3 billion, Menlo isn’t competing on scale.

That makes the dual-fund construction price analyzing. Menlo has spent three years positioning itself as an early-stage contrarian: the agency that backs corporations earlier than the market catches on. However Inflection IV is a development car for Collection B rounds and past, which places it in the identical room as the most important funds on the earth chasing the identical offers. 

The 50-year historical past does add one thing actual. Menlo backed Siri earlier than voice interfaces had been mainstream, Hotmail earlier than shopper net apps had discovered mass audiences, Roku earlier than streaming reshaped leisure, and Uber when ridesharing was nonetheless an experiment in a single metropolis.

“Being early has all the time been a part of Menlo’s DNA. The largest success tales by no means look apparent on the outset. To be a superb early-stage investor, it’s a must to think about a market earlier than it exists, perceive how know-how solves the ache, and assist founders construct towards it. We embrace first rules. The strategy roots our conviction in figuring out outlier alternatives earlier than their potential turns into apparent,” concludes Shawn Carolan, associate at Menlo Ventures. 

Menlo now manages greater than $8.5 billion in capital throughout a portfolio that features greater than 85 public corporations and over 170 exits. The query beneath the $3 billion headline is whether or not the following fund cycle requires discovering one other Anthropic or whether or not the agency can construct on what it already owns.