MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 20, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading venture capital firm Menlo Ventures today launched the Inflection Fund.
Menlo Ventures’ Inflection Fund is a $500 million fund designed to target soon-to-breakout companies at the point between venture and growth. With this fund, Menlo Ventures will make investments of $20 - $40 million to propel promising companies into the growth stage. The firm will continue to invest in its areas of expertise including AI, Cloud Infrastructure, FinTech, Marketplaces, Mobility, and SaaS across the broader categories of consumer and enterprise businesses.
“The venture capital market is more competitive than ever, particularly at opposite ends of the spectrum: the number of seed funds is at an all-time high, and the amount of late-stage capital is staggering. The biggest gap in the market is at the early-growth stage or what Menlo calls ‘the inflection stage.’ This is where Menlo intends to focus our new fund,” explained Matt Murphy, managing director of Menlo Ventures. “With the Inflection Fund, we partner with companies at the point where a meaningful injection of capital, introductions to talent and customers, and a helpful partnership will accelerate them to scalable, hypergrowth.”
Companies at the inflection stage show early potential but still carry the risk inherent with scaling an organization, growing a team, and executing against a product roadmap. With the Inflection Fund, Menlo will target companies that demonstrate:
- A beloved product
- Early product-market fit (with more than $5M in annual recurring revenue, but often less than $10M)
- Rapid growth of more than 100% year-over-year
- Early signs of efficient economics, payback, and retention
- A strong founding team with a unique perspective on the opportunity
With inflection stage investments in breakout startups such as BitSight, Carta, Chime, Envoy, Everlaw, HomeLight, Rover, ShipBob, Signifyd and Qualia, Menlo Ventures has earned a reputation for identifying great companies ready to take off. The goal is that these fast-growing startups will follow in the footsteps of Menlo’s more established portfolio companies such as Betterment, BlueVine, Pillpack, Poshmark, Uber, and Roku all funded by Menlo at the inflection stage.
The Inflection Fund will be led by Menlo Ventures’ Partners Mark Siegel, Matt Murphy, Shawn Carolan, Tyler Sosin, Venky Ganesan and joined by Steve Sloane, whose recent promotion makes him the youngest partner in Menlo’s 43-year history. Menlo will further build out this team and are actively looking to hire an additional partner, principal, and associate.
“The launch of the Inflection Fund caps a record run for Menlo Ventures,” said Venky Ganesan. “In the last 15 months, Menlo has distributed $2.4 billion to our limited partners. We added four new partners to our team, expanded our focus to include healthcare, and stacked our services team with industry veterans. We’ve never been better equipped to partner with pioneer founders to build the breakout companies of the future. We’ve done that with Poshmark, Uber, and Roku. Who’s next?”
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that strives to have a positive impact on everything we do. That’s why we support businesses including Betterment, Carta, Roku, Poshmark, Uber, and Warby Parker that are reimagining life and work for the better. Over 43 years we’ve grown a portfolio that includes more than 70 public companies, over 100 mergers and acquisitions, and $5.5 billion under management. We invest at every stage and in every sector, with expertise in Consumer, Enterprise, and Healthcare. From developing market strategies to creating communities, we provide real impact where entrepreneurs need it most. When we’re in, we’re all in.
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