Greylock raises $1.5 billion fund, keeps bets small and hands-on
Greylock said its 18th fund reached $1.5 billion, but partner Saam Motamedi said the firm could have raised a multiple of that and chose discipline instead.
Greylock raised a $1.5 billion fund on Tuesday, giving the 61-year-old venture firm more firepower without abandoning the tight portfolio that has long defined its brand. The new vehicle is 50% larger than the $1 billion fund it announced in 2023, yet Greylock said it still plans to back only about 25 companies so its partners can stay hands-on.
Saam Motamedi, a Greylock partner, said the firm could have raised a “multiple” of $1.5 billion but deliberately held back. Greylock’s structure is built around scarcity: its 10 partners each make only one or two new investments a year, and the firm says that discipline helps it remain the most important partner to founders rather than a capital source that spreads itself too thin.
That selectivity also shapes where the money goes. Greylock estimates about 15% of the new fund will be reserved for later-stage startups, while the rest will target earlier bets across AI-first companies in cybersecurity, infrastructure, SaaS, consumer, marketplaces and commerce, fintech and crypto. The firm said it will continue to support promising later-stage companies it may have missed earlier, the role it played in backing Anthropic, Revolut and Wiz through its prior fund.
Greylock’s pitch is broader than check size. The firm says it works with founders on recruiting top engineers, finding customers and building companies from the earliest stages through IPO, and it says the majority of its investments go to entrepreneurs creating their first enterprise. Greylock also pointed to its history of incubating Palo Alto Networks inside its offices 21 years ago and Abnormal AI in 2018, a reminder that its case for staying small rests on the promise of unusually close support. Its 17th fund, announced in 2023, was a $1 billion vehicle aimed at pre-seed, seed and Series A founders in enterprise and consumer software, and Greylock said then that keeping the partnership small and high-caliber was central to serving entrepreneurs well.
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