Menlo Ventures announced a $3 billion fundraising round on Tuesday — the largest in its 50-year history — fueled largely by its artificial intelligence portfolio, particularly its stake in Anthropic. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, Menlo's holding in the AI model maker is now valued at approximately $14 billion.
Reflecting on the deal, Menlo partners described a white-knuckle moment when they made a bet-the-firm $750 million investment in Anthropic in 2024, preemptively leading the startup’s Series D. At the time, that round quadrupled Anthropic's valuation to $18.4 billion.
While the strategic bet was arguably sound, the structure used to raise the capital was notably aggressive. Menlo had been an early investor in Anthropic — before the company had a commercial product. By 2024, long before Claude Code or Claude Mythos, the startup was already gaining traction. It had secured a $4 billion deal with Amazon and was being aggressively courted by VCs. Founded by former OpenAI researchers, including siblings Dario Amodei (CEO) and Daniela Amodei (president), Anthropic was a rising star in the AI boom — and remains so in 2026.
How Menlo raised the $750 million, however, raised eyebrows. In 2024, the venture capital market was just recovering from the post-pandemic downturn, with major firms like SoftBank and Tiger Global still cautious. Writing a $750 million check for a single startup was far from the norm.
Menlo structured approximately $500 million of the deal through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) — a one-off investment entity pooling capital from multiple sources for a single investment. The firm contributed $250 million from its own fund and insider capital, per Forbes at the time, bringing the total round to $750 million.
Since then, AI-focused SPVs have become nearly ubiquitous, with Anthropic a particular target. So much so that Anthropic issued a warning last month, labeling all unauthorized SPVs and secondary markets claiming to sell its stock as “scams.”
For investors in Menlo’s authorized 2024 deal, the aggressive approach has paid off handsomely. Menlo went on to invest in Anthropic’s Series E and F rounds.
Additionally, Menlo launched a $100 million startup fund with Anthropic in 2024, dubbed Anthology. That fund has since grown to approximately $250 million in deployed capital, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. The fund has backed over 60 companies, offering support such as access to Anthropic leaders and Claude credits, and has already generated several returns.
via TechCrunch