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Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures, the 44-year-old San Francisco VC firm led by Matt Murphy, manages $7.6B+ and backed Uber, Roku, and Anthropic before consensus formed.
Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures was founded in 1976 by H. DuBose Montgomery as one of the earliest venture firms on the West Coast, originally anchored in technology and networking deals. Today, the San Francisco-headquartered firm is led by a partnership that includes Matt Murphy, Shawn Carolan, Venky Ganesan, Deedy Das, and Amy Wu Martin. The firm reports $7.6B+ under management across vehicles that have backed more than 170 public companies and 260 mergers and acquisitions. The strategy targets the "three stages of early": inception, venture, and inflection. The Inception Fund team validates pre-seed and seed ideas; the core venture team leads Series A and B rounds; the inflection team supports growth-stage companies at critical scaling moments. Asset classes blend pure-play venture with direct co-investments across infrastructure, robotics, health, consumer, and financial software. Confirmed positions include Anthropic, Chime—which went public on Nasdaq in 2025 as CHYM—Carta, Benchling, and typeface. Geographic exposure is concentrated in North America, with select companies like Lovable and Photomath extending the footprint into Europe. The internal team spans investors, a dedicated Fuel Team for portfolio acceleration, and an Inception Fund Team. The Anthology Fund, a $100M initiative formed with Anthropic, further signals the firm's commitment to seeding AI-native startups. In April 2025, Menlo published proprietary research showing U.S. enterprises spent $37B on generative AI in 2025, a 3.2x increase year-over-year, reinforcing the proprietary data engine that informs its investment thesis. Menlo's structural differentiator lies in its operating-company posture embedded inside a traditional venture franchise. The firm built its own research apparatus that publishes state-of-AI reports on enterprise, healthcare, and consumer adoption—metrics LPs and portfolio companies alike use as benchmarks. This in-house data capability, paired with a 44-year partnership continuity that includes partners emeriti deeply woven into firm memory, creates an intelligence flywheel that is difficult for younger, less generalist competitors to replicate.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
—
AUM
$7.6B+ (per Menlo Ventures website)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Francisco
Corporate office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Principals
Matt Murphy
Partner
Shawn Carolan
Partner
Venky Ganesan
Partner
Deedy Das
Partner
Amy Wu Martin
Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does Menlo Ventures organize its investment stages?
Menlo divides early-stage investing into three bands: Inception for pre-seed and seed validation, Venture for Series A and B company-building, and Inflection for initial growth-stage scaling. Teams are dedicated to each band, with the Inception Fund operating as a distinct pool inside the broader firm. This structure lets the same partnership support a company from incorporation through a Series C without handing off the relationship.
How does Menlo Ventures source AI deals?
Menlo publishes original research on generative AI adoption inside enterprises, healthcare, and consumer markets, giving the firm a proprietary data layer most VCs lack. The Anthology Fund, a $100M vehicle formed with Anthropic, provides additional proprietary pipeline into AI-native startups. The firm's "All In on AI" posture means generalist partners actively cover infrastructure, application, and vertical-AI companies alongside dedicated AI investors.
Does Menlo Ventures invest only in the US?
The firm concentrates its capital in North America but has backed companies with geographic exposure in Europe—Lovable and Photomath are two portfolio examples. The core office is in San Francisco, and the partnership primarily underwrites opportunities from US-based founders, though it does not formally restrict by jurisdiction.
What is the Anthology Fund and how does it operate?
The Anthology Fund is a $100M initiative built in partnership with Anthropic to seed the next generation of AI-native startups. It provides both capital and early access to Anthropic's models and technical talent. This vehicle sits inside Menlo's early-stage platform and gives its inception and venture teams a direct line into the frontier-model ecosystem.
How does Menlo Ventures support portfolio companies beyond capital?
The firm operates a dedicated Fuel Team that provides portfolio companies with go-to-market execution, talent advisory, and corporate development support. Partnerships with over 170 public-company alumni and a 44-year network give founders access to operators who have navigated IPOs and acquisitions. Menlo explicitly markets itself not as a passive capital source but as a "company-building" firm that embeds operational help into the board relationship.
Which sectors does Menlo Ventures actively avoid?
Menlo explicitly invests in AI, bio plus healthcare, consumer, cybersecurity, fintech, infrastructure, robotics and hardware, SaaS, and supply chain automation. The firm does not list climate, defense, or space technology as formal focus areas, suggesting those sectors sit outside its current mandate, though no public exclusion policy exists.
What is Menlo Ventures' track record with public markets?
Menlo reports that its portfolio has produced over 170 public companies. Notable IPOs include Uber (2019), Roku (2017), Chime (2025), Poshmark (2021), and Recursion (2021). The firm also incubated Gilead Sciences in 1987, which went public in 1992 and remains one of the largest biotech companies globally.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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