The firm was formed in 1972 as Kleiner Perkins. When Caufield and Byers became partners as well, the name was changed to Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in
Menlo Park, California, with a focus on seed, early-stage, and growth companies. Byers joined in 1977. Located in
Menlo Park, California, Kleiner Perkins had access to the growing technology industries in the area. By the early 1970s, there were many
semiconductor companies based in the
Santa Clara Valley as well as early computer firms using their devices and programming and service companies. Venture capital firms suffered a temporary downturn in 1974, when the stock market crashed and investors were naturally wary of this new kind of investment fund. Nevertheless, the firm was still active in this period. By 1996, Kleiner Perkins had funded around 260 companies a total of $880 million.
John Doerr,
Vinod Khosla,
Colin Powell joined as a "strategic" partner in 2005, while
Al Gore joined as a partner in 2007 as part of a collaboration between Kleiner Perkins and
Generation Investment Management.
Mary Meeker joined the firm in 2010, Meeker departed in 2019 to found Bond Capital.
Mamoon Hamid from
Social Capital and
Ilya Fushman from Index Partners joined in 2017 and 2018 respectively, both as investing partners. By 2019 it had raised around $9 billion in 19 VC funds which the firm has vigorously denied. On 27 March 2015, after a month-long trial, the jury found against Pao on all claims. In June 2015, Pao filed an appeal. In September 2015, Pao announced she would no longer appeal the jury verdict. In September 2018, Kleiner Perkins announced it was spinning out its digital growth team into a new independent firm. In January 2019, the firm embarked on a new strategy, rebooting under Hamid and Fushman; and raising
US$600 million for its 18th fund, KP XVIII, that same month. The firm announced its 19th fund on 31 January 2019; in the "consumer, enterprise, hard tech and fintech" sectors. In 2021, the firm raised a new growth fund, Select I, and, in 2022, announced VC funds, Select II and early-stage venture fund KP20. In 2024, it launched its 21st VC fund, KP21, along with its sixth growth fund, Select III.. In 2026, Kleiner Perkins announced it was raising $3.5 billion to make bets on artificial intelligence startups reshaping industries including software, health care, transportation and autonomy. The firm — best known for its early industry-defining investments in companies like Google and Amazon.com Inc. — will dedicate $1 billion of the new cash to its 22nd early-stage fund, targeted at finding promising AI upstarts. The other $2.5 billion will be focused on investing in growth-stage companies, larger startups that include increasingly cash-hungry artificial intelligence players. == Investments ==