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Thrive Capital
Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital led OpenAI's record $6.6B round, building a concentrated portfolio across Stripe, GitHub, and Skims.
Thrive Capital
Thrive Capital was established in 2009 by Joshua Kushner alongside partners including Mario Schlosser and Oscar Salazar. The firm grew out of the New York technology ecosystem, initially gaining attention for early-stage bets before scaling to write the oversized checks that define its current posture. Thrive operates from offices in New York, Menlo Park, and Woodside. The firm deploys a flexible venture and growth equity strategy across internet, software, and technology-enabled businesses. It participates from early-stage rounds through late-stage growth financings, often taking concentrated positions as a lead or significant co-investor. Thrive has backed GitHub (acquired by Microsoft), Stripe, Unity Technologies, Kim Kardashian's Skims, and Slack. In the artificial intelligence arena, the firm anchored OpenAI's $6.6 billion funding round in October 2024 and led a multi-billion-dollar secondary share sale for the company in late 2024. Thrive invests primarily in North America, with selective exposure in Europe and Asia through portfolio company operations. Thrive manages a discrete series of institutional funds, with total capital raised across its history exceeding an estimated $15 billion. The firm has scaled its partnership base beyond its founders and maintains a dual-coast presence between New York and Silicon Valley. Joshua Kushner's brother, Jared Kushner, has no operational role at the firm; Thrive has publicly separated its investment activities from political associations. October 2024: Thrive led OpenAI's $6.6 billion funding round, the largest private tech raise on record at that time. Thrive's structure distinguishes it by concentrating partner-level decision-making within a tight leadership group while deploying capital across an unusually wide band of venture stages from a single pool. The firm's willingness to commit high-conviction sums — hundreds of millions into single companies — creates a posture closer to a crossover fund than a traditional venture capital partnership, without the liquidity horizons of a public-markets investor.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, New York, United States
Additional offices
Menlo Park, California, United States · Woodside, California, United States
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who makes investment decisions at Thrive Capital?
Joshua Kushner, as founder and managing partner, leads the investment team and shapes the portfolio's concentrated strategy. The firm operates with a relatively flat partnership structure compared to multi-tiered mega-funds, with a small group of senior investors sharing decision-making authority. Publicly available firm materials do not detail the specific investment committee composition.
How does Thrive Capital approach position sizing and concentration?
Thrive is known for making large, conviction-weighted bets rather than spraying seed checks across hundreds of startups. This manifested in leading rounds of $200 million or more into companies like OpenAI, Slack, and Unity. The firm often returns capital to limited partners through secondary sales of portfolio holdings while maintaining core equity positions.
Does Thrive Capital invest outside the United States?
Thrive's investment activity concentrates overwhelmingly on North American companies. The firm has backed businesses with global operations, but its deal flow in Europe and Asia is less visible than peers like Tiger Global or Sequoia. The firm's Menlo Park office supports its Silicon Valley sourcing while its New York headquarters anchors East Coast deal origination.
What is Thrive Capital's relationship with Affinity Partners or other political family vehicles?
Thrive operates independently of Jared Kushner and his firm Affinity Partners. The firm publicly separated its investment operations from political associations and Joshua Kushner has stated that Thrive's limited partner base and governance have no connection to his brother's activities.
How does Thrive source deals and maintain proprietary access?
The firm's sourcing draws heavily on the Kushner family's decades of New York real estate and media relationships, combined with a fifteen-year track record in technology. Thrive's ability to write large equity checks as a lead investor — notably in competitive situations like OpenAI — gives it access to allocations that smaller venture firms cannot obtain.
What is Thrive Capital's stance on participating in follow-on rounds?
Thrive frequently exercises pro-rata rights and has led multiple successive funding rounds for portfolio companies. In the case of OpenAI, the firm participated in multiple investment tranches and managed a secondary tender offer after the initial financing. The firm's later-stage funds provide the capacity for substantial follow-on deployment.
Does Thrive Capital operate any affiliated hedge fund or public-markets vehicle?
There is no public evidence of a Thrive-branded hedge fund or registered investment advisor operating alongside the core venture franchise. The firm's crossover-style investing — holding positions in late-stage private companies that resemble public-comparables sizing — has been executed entirely through its venture capital and growth equity fund structures.
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