Benchmark Fund XII | 1995 VC Fund

Benchmark

cb Email

Status

ACTIVE

Global HQ

San Francisco, United States

Countries of investment

United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Israel
Germany
France

Investment stages

Seed
Series A
Series B

Industries

Enterprise Software
Consumer Internet
Marketplaces
FinTech
SaaS
AI
Crypto
Frontier Tech
Developer Tools

About
Benchmark is a San Francisco-based VC focused on early-stage technology companies. Their focus spans enterprise software, consumer internet, marketplaces, FinTech, and frontier tech across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, and France. The firm supports founders from Seed through Series B with concentrated check sizes.

Min check size: $5M
Max check size: $20M
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Investment Thesis

Benchmark is an early-stage venture capital firm deploying capital across enterprise software, consumer, marketplaces, FinTech, and frontier technology sectors. They invest in category-defining founders building generation-defining companies with an equal-partner model and concentrated portfolio approach. The firm differentiates itself through its iconic 1995 founding heritage, equal-partner structure with no traditional hierarchy, $425M Fund X (2024), and unparalleled Silicon Valley track record backing eBay, Uber, Twitter, Snap, Discord, Dropbox, GitHub, Instagram, and WeWork.

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Manager's Experience

Peter Fenton (General Partner) joined Benchmark in 2006 after serving as a partner at Accel Partners; he has led investments in Twitter (IPO), Yelp (IPO), Zendesk (IPO), Elastic (IPO), New Relic (IPO), Hortonworks (IPO), Docker, and others, and consistently ranks at the top of the Forbes Midas List. Sarah Tavel (General Partner) joined Benchmark in 2017 after serving as a partner at Greylock Partners and being an early product leader at Pinterest; she focuses on consumer marketplaces and crypto. Chetan Puttagunta (General Partner) joined Benchmark in 2018 after serving as a partner at NEA where he led investments in MongoDB (IPO) and MuleSoft (IPO); he focuses on open-source and developer tools. Bill Gurley (General Partner Emeritus) joined in 1999 and built Benchmark's iconic reputation through investments in Uber, OpenTable, Grubhub, and Zillow before transitioning to emeritus status.