Kleiner Perkins announces a $2 billion capital increase, proving that established firms are still capable of raising large sums

Many VC firms are having difficulty attracting new capital, especially from their own investors in a tepid IPO climate.

Established, brand-name companies are still able raise large amounts of money.

Kleiner Perkins announced on Friday that it had closed on more than 2 billion dollars in fresh capital, across two funds. This is a slight rise from the 52-year old firm’s 1.8 billion dollars previous fundraising in early 2022.

Other notable firms that have successfully defied this year’s VC fundraising slump include Andreessen Horowitz which secured $7.2 billion to fund several of its funds. General Catalyst is reportedly wrapping up a $6.2 billion fundraise, and Norwest, with its 3 billion capital haul.

Kleiner Perkins announced in a blog that it would continue to invest in enterprise, consumer, healthcare fintech, and hardtech startups as it did for its previous fund. What’s changed, however, is the ability to make these industries more productive with the help AI.

The firm has already backed several AI-driven startups including Glean, a business application search tool, and Harvey, a AI assistant for attorneys. Kleiner Perkins’ investments in prominent AI firms are modest compared to those of other large VCs.

Kleiner Perkins, founded in 1972 was once considered one of the most elite companies in Silicon Valley. It was a pioneer in backing companies such as Amazon, Compaq, Genetech, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, and Sun Microsystems. The firm, while it lost some of its prominence during the last tech boom has still invested in many eventual winners including Airbnb, Instacart Slack, and Robinhood.